Crimson Red Shadow
by Crazy laughter
Summary: Orihime makes a deal with a demon to get out of Hueco Mundo. The demon Bezanthume turns back time and Orihime has a second chance to get things right as the demon tries to uphold his end of the deal, for Orihime to never be imprisoned in Hueco Mundo.
1. Waking the demon

**Yeah... Hi! This is my first Bleach fic, so please tell me what you think. If the characters are out of character, then it's my fault and you can flame me all you want. It's also part of the story, but if it bothers ypu too much, let me know.

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**Chapter One**

**Waking the demon**

"Why are you not eating? Am I really going to have to force it down your throat? Eat, I do not wish to touch you." Orihime looked over to Ulquiorra standing in the doorway with another tray of food. He had his left hand casually in his pocket, like always, and he was holding the tray with his right hand. Ulquiorra had seemingly told whoever was making her food that she had trouble keeping her food down, so there was only a serving of mushroom soup and bread on the tray, along with water. Orihime was sure if she were to mention it he would just dismiss it as an order from Aizen, but Orihime knew that it was him who mentioned it to the chef. She had her sources.

"**Yeah, princess, you really should do what you're told. Otherwise he would be "forced" to touch you. Give me a break! He wants to touch you and do some other things to you so bad that it hurts him. If Aizen were to "disappear" he would rape you in an instant!"**

There it was again, the real reason why she had trouble keeping her food down. The lies this voice fed into her mind made her feel sick and the possibility that they were not lies made her gag up her food. The laughter she heard echoing in her head made her clutch her head and collapse on the couch that happened to be there to break her fall. The voice projected an image of Ulquiorra flinching in the doorway, but then controlling himself immediately. She could feel how the voice smirked. Like every single one in this place the voice seemed to see her misery amusing. It beckoned her to do something, but she knew that this was another one of Aizen's games and had tried not to show any signs that she could even hear the voice.

"**Oh, this is amusing! Ulquiorra is now trying to find a detached way of asking you if you are okay. Let me guess: Do you need medical attention? No, that might imply that he would care for you. Oh, I got it! 'Aizen doesn't wish you to die, so detain from doing so'"**

"I will leave the food here; if you had not eaten it by the time I come back I will force you. Aizen does not wish for your death, so you are to stay alive." Ulquiorra walked away without making any sound. When she was left alone she allowed herself to finally acknowledge the voice as a reality.

"Stop laughing!" Her head was about to explode as the voice got louder and louder by the second and the laughter seemed to echo from everywhere and turn into thousands of different voices, all laughing at her. The laughter stopped suddenly and Orihime felt that the owner of the voice grinned like a fox. A picture of Gin popped into her mind. Could it really be that fox-faced bastard? The voice didn't voice didn't sound familiar at all, but it didn't sound even nearly human. It was too deep to be coming from any human throat, but Inoue Orihime knew that there were voice synthesizers that could change someone's voice like that.

"**So, you finally admit that you hear me. No, I am not this Gin. I am something very different. Now when both of us know we can hear each other let me ask you: What are you prepared to do in order to get out of here?"**

To get out… She thought about everything she had gone through in this place. She thought about Ulquiorra's threats, Aizen's aura of hypnotic evil and Grimmjow's acts of violence right in front of her eyes and the fact that she made it possible for him to continue being an espada. Now the cause for the worst experience she had in here was asking her what she would do to get away.

"**Oh, no, let me rephrase that: What are you prepared to do for all of this not to ever happen, for it all to be avoided? Does that sound any better?"**

For all this to never happen… For my friends… I would do anything. "What do you mean? Are you saying that you can do that? What exactly are you?" A rumbling chuckle rumbled all around her and it felt like the world was shaking. She feared that she would pass out from the force and sense closeness of the inhuman voice.

"**My, my, so many questions, you answer my question and I'll answer yours. How far would you go? How deep would you sink into darkness for them?"**

"Yes, I would do anything! I would go through anything to stop this from ever happening."

"**That's good to hear. Now what you will have to do first is to draw runes on either side of the door according to my orders. Can you do that?"**

"Y- Yes. But… There's nothing I can use to draw them."

"**Stupid girl, you're supposed to use your own blood. I guess I should have mentioned that a little earlier. Bite your finger or cut it with something. You don't have to worry; I chose the path that is most likely to succeed. Now get up and get to it. You do not have to know why, just do it. We do not have time to spare for that."**

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I really hope she has finished eating by now, Ulquiorra thought while walking back towards Inoue Orihime's room. If I were to be force-feed her she could break. Humans are so… Ulquiorra stopped while searching for the right word to describe Inoue Orihime.

Soft, yes, they are too soft when compared to us Arrancar. Ulquiorra continued walking, but he didn't stop thinking about how soft Inoue Orihime was. The temptation to touch her skin had become almost irresistible in these last few days. He had this vague feeling like something was whispering things in his ear when he was around Inoue Orihime. Sometimes he felt like his thoughts were really not his own, but someone else's. He was confused for the first time during his short life. What the hell was going on in his head?

He rounded a corner and almost ran into Halibel. He stopped right before he would have collided with her, but she seemed to be deep in thought and was knocked back when she collided with Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra had concluded that most of her willpower must have gone into keeping that little jacket of her in place. Now he started to think if it was glued in place as it didn't move an inch when she fell. He noticed that it was hard for him to get his eyes off of her breasts, still bouncing from the collision. What the hell was going on inside his head? Was that laughter he heard?

"You were careless." Ulquiorra pointed out. Halibel shot him with a glare promising a slow and extremely painful death. Ulquiorra offered a hand down to Halibel. "Can you get up?" The murderous look in her eyes melted away and Halibel looked at the offered hand in surprise. Halibel grabbed his hand and allowed Ulquiorra to pull her up. They ended up very close to each other. Ulquiorra saw Halibel turn her eyes away and noticed that her hand was sweaty. He couldn't tell if she was blushing or not because of the high collar of her mini-jacket. Now he was sure that he heard laughter. He let go of Halibel's hand and stepped back.

"Did you hear something?" Now when he stopped and tried to place the laughter he couldn't hear it anymore. Maybe he just imagined it after all. He did hear the laughter whenever he had those foreign kinds of thoughts. He just might be going crazy. "Forget it, sorry." Ulquiorra started running towards Inoue Orihime's room. He did not know why, but he had a feeling he had to hurry, that she was in some kind of danger. Aizen entrusted her in his care and he had to tend to her. Yes, that's what this feeling is, this smothering pressure in my chest. Obedience, nothing more…

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**"That Ulquiorra character has surprisingly sharp instincts. I think he actually sensed my presence a second ago. He'll be here in a minute. Does he always give you this much time to eat?" **

"Yes…" Where was it going with this? She usually was a very trusting person, but now she had spent a month surrounded by people that kept on conspiring around her, playing with her. She was bound to be a little suspicious.

"**That's real nice of him. Ulquiorra can't hear me like you can, but I was able to make him hurry." **Inoue Orihime was still unable to place the voice, but now when it had stopped bullying her it didn't sound as inhuman anymore. Still you couldn't even think it was coming from a human, but the cruelty and the sickening presence were gone. **"Hmm… It seems like you have questions, go ahead and ask me. Or could you just wait a second. We don't want to make him suspicious." **

"Wait! What's going to happen to him? What are those runes going to do?" The presence she felt when the voice was near vanished altogether when the door swung open and Ulquiorra appeared in the doorway. The runes on either side of the door started glowing crimson red. The trap was set. Some of the excess blood that had dripped on the floor when she hesitated while drawing the runes moved up the wall and formed three words: "No Second Thoughts."

"What have you done?" Ulquiorra's eyes darted on the floor around her and he took both of his hands out of his pockets. Orihime looked at the floor around her and saw that there was blood on her dress and on the floor around her. The steak knife she used to cut her finger was set on her left side and her right hand was covered in blood. Ulquiorra moved his right leg towards her and almost crossed the threshold, but hesitated at the last minute. His eyes were fixed on the floor just at the side of the doorway. He had noticed the crimson glow. His analytic mind made a inventory of the things provided inside Inoue Orihime's room and he realized that there was nothing in there that could produce such a glow. Her power had a warm yellow glow, so the glow had to be from someone else or some kind of magic she can use, but what they had failed to record. Either way: It was a trap.

"What have you done?" Ulquiorra repeated, but with a threatening tone. Now Inoue Orihime realized what the voice had meant with those three written words. If this failed now, there would be no going back. She would be the one to suffer and whoever the voice was would stay unscathed. She might have figured it out, but there seemed to be nothing she could do now. She looked up to Ulquiorra's murderous eyes and felt utterly defeated. He could just blast a hole in the wall and avoid the runes. She noticed that movement on the corner of her eyes and saw how the words written with her blood reformed to form one word.

"FAINT"

Fine, probably the only thing she could do now anyways: Orihime didn't even have act much. Ulquiorra's stare felt like it was smothering her and she felt dizzy already. She let her legs bugle under her and felt how the floor rushed up towards her. She must have been a little anemic from losing that much blood while writing and rewriting the runes. She heard Ulquiorra take a hurried step forward.

The runes activated instantly and the whole room was filled with the crimson light for a split-second. Orihime turned her head towards the doorway fearing what she might see. What had those runes done to Ulquiorra? During the two seconds it took for her to turn her head towards the doorway she imagined dozens of different ways the runes might have killed Ulquiorra. Still she wasn't able to even get close to what she really saw.

Ulquiorra wasn't dead, actually he was still standing in the doorway, but still you could tell that the runes had done something to him. First of all his black hair had turned completely white and was standing up like he had been electrocuted. His eyes shone with the crimson light that had been in the runes just a minute ago. Ulquiorra had to support himself on the doorframe and Orihime noticed that long black claws grew out of the tips of his fingers and sunk into the stone doorframe easily. Ulquiorra took a long breath in and then smiled while exhaling slowly.

This wasn't Ulquiorra, couldn't be. Even if he did smile sometime, somewhere, now he didn't have any reason to do so. And Orihime couldn't imagine Ulquiorra smiling at all anyways.

"**Does this answer your question? He knew that there was a trap and still he took a step forward when you collapsed. He was really living in denial…" **The voice Orihime had been hearing for the past couple of days now chuckled using Ulquiorra's body. **"Sorry, I really shouldn't laugh. It just feels so good to be in a body again. Ulquiorra was not actually evil, just extremely loyal, to Aizen, and possibly to you as well." **Ulquiorra's body walked over to her like a puppet supported by strings, a marionette doll. Orihime had always thought that the way those dolls moved was creepy. Seeing Ulquiorra's body desecrated like this made her feel terrible about what she was doing. She flinched away from the clawed hand reaching down to her.

"**I see… Let me explain something to you that you obviously failed to understand. I am offering to make it so that any of this never happened: Aizen doesn't kidnap you, Your friends never see the need to come to save you, Ulquiorra or Grimmjow don't hurt your friends… Do you understand now?"**

There could have just been a huge question mark flashing above her head. He sighed and forced her on her feet. He grabbed her by the shoulders, but was careful not to pierce her skin with his claws, and waited for her to look him in the eyes. When she eventually did he spoke in a clear and calm tone.

"**This would never happen. You would not be here, Ulquiorra would not be here, this would not happen to him. Now that you understand, we really have to go." **Orihime was dragged out of the door of her cell and her feet barely even touched the floor when the possessed body of Ulquiorra rushed through the corridors and made sharp turns that made her flail around in his grip like a ragdoll. When he finally stopped and let go of her she collapsed against a wall and tried to stop the world from spinning. When she finally felt like the world had stopped swaying like a ship in a storm she turned to the being that had possessed Ulquiorra's body.

"Halibel, stand aside" Ulquiorra sounded and looked like Ulquiorra again. His hair was back to the usual black and his eyes were also as green as ever. He was standing there casually with his hands halfway in his pockets. What had happened while she was dazed out? Did the runes lose effect or was the transformation only temporary? What exactly was going on?

"What exactly are you doing with the little princess, Ulquiorra?" Orihime noticed Halibel standing in front of them in the hallway. Her eyes didn't leave Ulquiorra one second, but she nodded her head towards Orihime. Was she suspecting that Ulquiorra wasn't Ulquiorra?

"**Of course she knows Ulquiorra is not Ulquiorra anymore! The reason I was in such hurry is because they were bound to notice the change in Ulquiorra's reiatsu. The only reason she is not attacking because she doesn't know what she's up against. I would appreciate it if you would use that little shield of yours if I happen to miss on my first attack." **Orihime heard the words echo all around her and it didn't look like Halibel heard him, so he must have been talking into her mind.

Wait, why wasn't she even mildly shocked or surprised by that? Some body-snatching, fiery-eyed thing was speaking into her mind and she was not shocked or even slightly surprised?

"We needed cheese" Ulquiorra said in his usual calm voice. It took a couple of seconds for Halibel's mind to accept that she did hear Ulquiorra say something like that. Halibel was now almost absolutely sure it wasn't Ulquiorra, but even hearing someone who only looked like Ulquiorra say something like that was ridiculous.

"You needed cheese… So you decided to take the captive with you to the kitchens instead of just sending someone to get it?" Halibel hunched down onto a battle stance and inched her hand towards her katana.

Ulquiorra simply nodded before disappearing into thin air. There was no sound of movement like with Sonido or did he jump up like with shunpo. He simply disappeared into thin air. Halibel's eyes widened from shock when she heard the sound of a sword being drawn from behind her. She spun around and reached for her sword. Her hand closed around thin air. She saw a fiery eyed being with white hair standing behind her with a wide grin on its face. It had her katana in its right hand and a clawed left hand reached out towards her.

"**You lose" **The claws suddenly shot out and impaled her chest. Halibel couldn't believe that she had been unable to dodge an attack like that, even with the fact that it had waited for her to turn around before striking with those claws. No, wait, the claws had not been able to impale her like she originally thought. If this thing would have decided to try and impale her stomach or head she would most probably be dead, but it had went for her chest and couldn't reach any vital organs. Halibel gave a silent thank you for Lord Aizen's perverted mind for making her so busty.

"Uhm… Is she going to be alright?" Orihime took a step towards Halibel. The front of her jacket was dyed red from her blood. Both Halibel and the possessed body of Ulquiorra turned to look at her in surprise. Orihime had not heard of a female Arrancar, so for her it looked like a woman with a sword getting attacked by the monster that had kidnapped her from her kidnappers. Halibel suddenly staggered against a wall from the crushing cold spreading out from the wounds on her chest.

"**Cheh… She's an Arrancar, like she would die from something like that… Instantly, that is…" **He kept on cutting the overgrown claws his left hand with Halibel's sword. He had to saw them off slowly and it looked like Halibel's sword was getting duller and duller while the claws refused to break. **"Damn… I made them too strong… Oh, who cares! Come on, princess. Let's go." **The fiery eyed thing dropped Halibel's katana down on the ground and then slashed it to pieces with the claws on his left hand. He turned around and kept on walking to the direction where they were going before moving like a puppet controlled by strings. Orihime didn't follow after it and it spun back around when noticing it.

"**What now?" **It asked in a extremely irritated tone.

"She is not going to die, is she?" Halibel and the monster inhabiting Ulquiorra's body both growled at Orihime. She flinched back and wondered what she had done to agitate them like this. She didn't want anyone to die because of her.

"**Oh, for heaven's sake! She's not even human! Why would you care? She is an Arrancar, a freaking soul-eating hollow! One of those monsters that ate your brother and caused him to become one of them! Are you seriously going to tell me you do not want to see her suffer just as much your brother did?" **

Orihime looked up in surprise. How could it know about her brother? She had not told anyone about that incident. She was still dealing with it herself. Having your own brother trying to kill you did leave behind a certain amount of damage, no matter how cheery you looked on the outside, the scar still remained. It felt like a wound in her chest that hadn't closed up was torn open yet again.

Still she didn't take a step towards him.

"**Cheh… You're such a fucking saint…" **Ulquiorra's body flew over to Halibel's body lying on the ground without its feet hitting the floor even once. It was clear that it was really controlled like a marionette doll instead of a possession of body. The overgrown claws struck out and ripped open the front of Halibel's jacket.

"**Umm… Nice. Without that mask on your face you would be the hottest thing in here." **Ulquiorra's body suddenly hunched right over Halibel like the strings supporting it had been cut. Halibel could feel the fire in the thing's eyes burning her skin. She tried to move, to kill it, to hurt it, to stop it, but the poison running inside her made it impossible to move and her vision was already getting blurry. If this thing was intending on doing something to her, she couldn't stop it. She was totally helpless.

"What are you doing?! Stop that!" Orihime noticed with a quite of a shock that she was pulling Ulquiorra's body away from Halibel. The burning-red eyes turned to look at her and she took a step back. Still, she had found the courage to stand up to this _thing_ and decided to ride on that feeling as long as possible.

"What the hell are you?! You say that you have the power to reverse time or something, but I'm not going to believe that from someone who intends to rape the woman he just stabbed in the chest!" She screamed right in its ear.

She was breathing hard and her hands were clenched into fists by her sides. She felt good after letting out some of the frustration gathered up inside her. She looked back up into its flaming-red eyes.

All of her resolve melted away when she felt the inhuman rage in those eyes. Squirmy looking runes flashed for a second in the air between them and Orihime was slammed against a wall with a tremendous weight pinning her down. She was going to die now. She just knew it. She could see how painful her death would be from those eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks when she realized she would not see her friends ever again. She was going to be killed by this emotionless monster in a world where no one would save her.

"**Rape?"**

This thing was going to kill her. It was going to… Wait… What did it just say?

"**Do you really think I'm low enough to do something like that?"**

What the… So did he get all worked up because I thought he was going to rape that woman? It's just not going to kill me because I stopped him? He's actually offended because I thought he was capable of rape? Still, the reaction was too violent for him to be any knight in shining armor, but Orihime noticed that she didn't think of him as "it" anymore. She realized that it had already proven numerous times it could hear her thoughts and she had regarded him as "it" for the whole time.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please let me go, I can't breathe!" Orihime fell to her knees when the pressure weighing her down was suddenly lifted and she could breathe again. She wasn't sure if she feared him less or even more after this. The fact that he got offended from her accusation meant that he had some moral standards, but his reaction on the other hand told that he had a dangerous temper.

"**I understand that my means of healing this woman could have been seen as something… harmful to her. You can heal her on your own if it is your wish. Although the gesture is noble and admirable in any way, you should remember that this will never happen. In the means I intend to stop all of this from ever being."**

Orihime walked over to Halibel's side without even stopping to consider his words. All she knew was that the horrible wounds on Halibel's chest were killing her and she didn't want anyone to die for her.

"Souten keshun! I reject!" The yellow field stretched out around Halibel's body and the red poison spreading out from the wounds started to retreat instantly. While Orihime healed Halibel Halibel's attacker was trying to cut the claws on his left hand with the smaller ones on his right hand. Orihime tried to rush the healing process as much as possible, but the silence was getting awkward for someone as talkative as her.

"So… Uhm…" She tried to find something to say. What could she talk about in the situation they were in? She didn't even know his name. Oh yeah…

"What's your name? You never did tell me that. You promised, remember?" He had promised earlier to answer her questions if she answered his. He never came around to telling her anything. She heard a scraping sound when something hard sliding against something hard. She looked over her shoulder and saw that he had stop trying to cut his fingernails. Actually, it looked like he had stopped moving all together.

"**Oh, are you sure you want to know my name? Uh… Isn't it more important to know what I am before that? Something, anything else…"**

"No, you should always introduce yourself before anything else. I was raised like that." Orihime looked over her shoulder again and saw how the light of his eyes fluttered like a dying flame. What was wrong with him? She turned back to healing Halibel.

"**It is… My name…" **He looked at Orihime with a scary looking expression on his face. **"My name is Bezanthume…" **For a moment Orihime felt that inhuman rage exploding out of him, but when she turned her head towards him it was gone again. She must have been imagining things. She did think he was intimidating and turning her back to him made her feel uncomfortable. Especially after seeing what those claws he was playing with right behind her back could do to an Arrancar.

"Bezanthume… It sounds… Nice. Exotic." He seemed to be sensitive about his name so Orihime was careful not to say any of her usual comments. Her life seemed to have no value here. All they cared about where her powers.

"**You're getting depressed…" **

"No, Im not depressed! Really! I'm finally getting out of here. What do I have to be depressed about?"

"**You are getting depressed about the idea that your powers are what all these bad people care about and that is what is bound to get your friends in trouble. You know that they will come for you the second they know where you are and you also know that there are people here with enough power to kill them. As I said earlier: You're such a fucking saint. Now, when that is said let me ask you something: Do you actually think you are the only one being held captive here? I am in the same situation as you, but I just don't happen to have anyone to come after me. Sorry, but I have to use you and your powers for a really selfish reason. No one will know if I am locked here for all eternity. No one will ever know. No one can hear me screaming when they research me…" **

He suddenly fell quiet. It was so sudden that it seemed like someone turned a switch and cut the power to his mouth. Bezanthume stood a little straighter than before and he had both of his legs on the ground. He suddenly looked like a human instead of a marionette.

"**Sorry. That doesn't help you get over your depression at all, does it? My sad little story is irrelevant… You should stop healing Halibel now if you don't want her to snap your neck by the way. Szayel Apollo Grantz can heal her from there if they still wish for her to live." **Inoue heard how he walked over to her and then stopped right behind her to judge Halibel's injuries. Orihime appreciated the fact that he was now walking like a normal human being instead of flaying around like a marionette.

"**We have to go now." **Bezanthume stated in a threatening tone. Reluctantly Orihime left Halibel lying there with those wounds still on her chest. She had been able to reject the poison spreading inside her body, but the wounds alone were enough to keep her out of commission. She had lost so much blood.

Bezanthume started walking with the claws on his left hand dragging behind him. Orihime followed after him, on his right side. She wanted to keep a distance between her and those claws. They walked in silence for a while and the hurry Bezanthume seemed to be in earlier seemed to be forgotten. He walked according to her step, even though he was the one leading. Orihime tested this theory by speeding up in to a run suddenly. Bezanthume didn't try to catch her or accuse her of trying to run away. He was still able to stay ahead of her. Orihime didn't feel like asking for a break even though her feet started aching after an hour of walking. Where were they going? Where was he taking her? They seemed to be going deeper and deeper into Las Noches.

"Uhm… Where are we going?" Orihime asked when the surrounding stone suddenly turned into black stone instead of the white stone the whole of Las Noches seemed to be made out of.

"**Simply put: To my body." **The glow of Bezanthume's eyes had been getting brighter and brighter and now it was enough to light their way. Torches had stopped being on the walls when the stone turned black. Now Orihime remembered Bezanthume's earlier words. _How deep would you sink into darkness for them? _Did he mean this journey into the depths of Las Noches's dark heart?

Orihime didn't ask any more questions.

"**Wait…" **Bezanthume stopped and raised his right hand to signal her to stop. Bezanthume was standing completely still and was moving his head to one side to another. Orihime thought that it looked like he was trying to place a sound he had heard. Orihime's hands rose up to her temples. She had also started to feel something ominous in the air; a presence.

"**At the end of this path there is a door. I am beyond that door. You are to walk the remainder of this path alone."**

"Waah!! No, there's no way! That's just way too scary for me. What if there are monsters down there? I feel something really ominous lurking around here…" Suddenly, Orihime couldn't get a word out of her mouth.

Bezanthume had turned around to face the direction they came from and the light from his eyes lit up the path behind them and two shadows stretched out into the darkness.

"**Foolish girl… It's not the monsters ahead you have to worry about. It would be easier for me to stay here and hold them off while you continue on." **

"Oii! Ya hear that? He's sayin' we're the monsters. That's rich." Gin said to the person standing next to him. The crimson light made him look even more like a snake than he normally did.

"Hmph!" Grimmjow answered while drawing his zanpakatou. Bezanthume let out low chuckle and flexed his left hand.

"You're no fun, Grimmjow. I would have liked to have an intelligent conversation with someone for a change and you decide to dice him up right away. That's not fun at all." He didn't follow Grimmjow's example.

"**Go already!" **Bezanthume screamed into Orihime's mind. Orihime staggered back into the darkness behind Bezanthume's back, out of the area lit by his eyes. Why wouldn't there be any torches in here? It didn't make any sense. No one would be able to walk around without stumbling.

"Grind, Panthera!" Orihime was suddenly knocked back and would have fallen right on her face if there wouldn't have been something extending out of the wall.

"**Well, aren't you a cute little kitten, but do you actually think that turning into a cat is going to help you the least bit? I'm going to kill you like anything else no matter what you look like." **Bezanthume closed his eyes and complete and utter darkness surrounded them. Orihime heard swords clashing and Grimmjow growling and screaming insults. She also heard the sound of Bezanthume's claws piercing flesh and bone several times. She still remembered the sound his claws made when they penetrated Halibel's chest. The wet grunching sound it made when the claws cut through an Arrancar's thick skin and the bones underneath.

"You… You… You bastard!" Grimmjow growled. Bezanthume opened his eyes again and the hallway was bathed in crimson light again. Grimmjow was standing up shakily and was soaked in his own blood. There were several deep gashes in his chest and hands. The luminescent veins signaling the spreading poison were covering his entire body. Bezanthume appeared right in front of him and Grimmjow's shadow stretched out into the darkness. Bezanthume watched Grimmjow struggling to stay on his feet for a second before turning to Gin.

"**Are you stupid enough to attack me while I am in my own domain? These black walls work almost like Tousen's bankai. While I keep my eyes closed you are engulfed in complete sensory deprivation while I feel through the stone and cut you to tiny shreds without you knowing it." **Bezanthume pointed one finger out towards Gin and it grew until it was inches away from his eye. Gin didn't move an inch away from it. The smile that had seemed to be painted on his face was gone and replaced by a serious scowl. The only real difference to his usual expression was that his smile was turned upside down.

"**And you have probably noticed that I can control the shape and texture of this stone as I wish. Keep your zanpakatou sheathed and I'll let you live. I think that she doesn't want me to kill anyone." **Bezanthume turned around and started walking towards Orihime.

"Ya really are a demon, huh?" Gin said in a even tone. Bezanthume didn't even flinch, but the fact that Gin was swallowed up to his neck inside the floor instantly after he said that gave away his reaction. He reached Orihime and offered his right hand to lift her up. Orihime just stared at him in horror. A demon! Now that she thought about it, it was really incredible that she didn't figure it out earlier: Bezanthume had possessed a body, been inside her head, had fiery-red eyes and a rumbling inhuman voice.

"**She really didn't have to know that, you know. Yes, I am a demon, a scary, deal making, evil, blood-thirsty demon… I probably should have said that in some other way, but well… The thing is that it doesn't matter what I am. And you already know I'm a demon and you know that demons make deals. I ****have made a deal with you and I'm going to fulfill it and since you know my name you can regrettably… Never mind that. Let's go, princess." **He grabbed Orihime's shoulder and started dragging her along the corridor made out of black stone. A black stone he had said was his domain… Orihime was confused.

"What was that about your name and the deal?" Orihime asked, totally rejecting reality for the moment.

"**Shut up! You don't need to know that." **He shut his eyes and left her in complete darkness. She had to trust him not to walk into a hole on the ground or some kind of trap.

"Open your eyes! Open your eyes! Walking with your eyes closed in a fortress run by hollows is a very bad idea!" Orihime frantically kicked and hit him while clinging on to him tighter. Bezanthume opened his eyes and she was bathed in crimson light again. She looked up to Bezanthume's face with her annoyed face and noticed Ulquiorra's tear tattoos coming down from his eyes. She had actually forgotten that Bezanthume was only possessing Ulquiorra's body.

"You said we were going to your body, your real body…" Orihime asked in a timid voice.

"**Yes, I did and we still are… Well, it's not exactly my body, but… It's complicated."**

"Do you want me to heal you then? In return for you making this all go away?"Orihime asked. That seemed like the only thing possible.

"**No, I want you to set me free" **Bezanthume answered.

"Oh… I'll do my best then… But…" Orihime glanced over to the teardrop tattoos under his eyes and then turned her eyes away. Ulquiorra had been nice to her in the end. The reason he actually got possessed was that he was worried about her…

"**Are you seriously still thinking about that? Why can you not comprehend that if I do as you wish, he will never even exist? I stop Aizen from getting the thing-a-la-foozit from inside Rukia and he can't make even a single Arrancar. None of your friends end up being sliced up or do they come after you and get killed while doing it."**

"Uhm… The thing-a-la-foozit?" Orihime asked

"**That mystical little black thing Aizen carries around!" **Bezanthume yelled and the black walls around them rumbled and formed into new shapes like they were made of liquid. Orihime was too scared to thing so she couldn't stop herself from saying what she thought.

"Do you mean Tousen?" She regretted it the moment she said it and she regretted it even more when the walls shout out towards her and formed thousands of little blades and forced her to stay completely still if she didn't want to rip herself to shreds.

"**ARE YOU SERIOUSLY THAT STUPID?! OF COURSE I DO NOT MEAN TOUSEN, YOU STUPID BITCH! I MEAN THE BLACK LITTLE ORB HE SHOWED TO YOU! HE USES THAT TO MAKE THE ARRANCAR!" **The black stone swirled around him and formed into the shape of something like wings behind him; huge bat-like wings reaching out into the darkness surrounding them. The stone immediately swirled into some other form just as frightening to her. Snakes, lizards, rabid dogs, knives covered in blood, the face of her hollow-brother. And most important of all: The contorted bodies of all of her friends lying in pools of their own blood covered and consumed by the other.

"**Your friends are important to you aren't they? Well, if you do not want that to happen to them in the near future, you better do as I say!" **The blades that had kept her in place flowed off her body as harmless as water. The moment she was able to move she collapsed to the ground. The crimson red light from Bezanthume's eyes made the images of her friends' dead bodies seem like reality. No matter how much she tried to fight them, the tears still came. She cried while Bezanthume watched with inhuman hatred flowing from his eyes. Cold and determined hatred towards everything and everyone paired with the power to kill and destroy everything and everyone.

"**Get up." **Bezanthume said with his voice promising a slow and painful death if she didn't listen. Orihime's sense of self preservation made her get up on shaky legs. She still kept on crying and the tears rolling down her cheeks looked like blood in the light of Bezanthume's deep red eyes.

"**Follow me. It's not that far now."** Bezanthume turned around and started walking without even checking if she followed. Orihime stumbled after him. There was no turning back for her anymore. She didn't keep count of the time they walked, but by the time they finally arrived to the end of the hallway her tears had run out and she followed him like a doll. Step after step. Only thinking about what she could stop from happening.

"**We're here. Now open the door."**

"What? Me? How am I supposed to that?"

"**Use that pompous little fairy on your head, the one that can cut anything. Tsubaki, or whatever his name is."**

"Oh! Tsubaki, could you come out?" Her hairpins started glowing and six flying little fairies popped out and circled around her head.

"Stop this! You cannot trust him! He's a demon!" They all yelled in unison while flying around her head. They were screaming so close to her ears that Orihime was temporarily deaf in her right ear.

"Eh?!" She asked while the fairies formed the Santen Kesshun between Bezanthume and her. Bezanthume didn't make a move towards her and seemed indifferent about it all. She suddenly acknowledged that someone was pulling her hair and one of the fairies was screaming in her right ear.

"Damn it, woman!" Tsubaki, it was definitely Tsubaki. "Do you actually think I'm going to help a demon get free? There has to be a reason he was locked up in the first place!" Tsubaki hit her in the head repeatedly with his small fists.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it! Stop it! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Ow!" Orihime screamed frantically, while running around with Tsubaki hitting her constantly.

"**I have had enough of this little comedy show!" **The black walls turned to liquid again and jumped out towards Tsubaki and the other fairies flying around Orihime's head and the three who were sustaining the shield. Bezanthume sighed and walked over to Orihime.

"**You have control over these little things, not the other way around." **Bezanthume's voice was threatingly cold. The light from his eyes made Orihime feel like she was totally worthless, not fit to live, only good to do the bidding of others and weigh her friends down. She was just a –

"Don't fall into the spell Orihime-san!" Ayame screamed frantically. She was clenched tighter by the fist made out of the black stone and started whimpering in pain. Orihime closed her eyes and the sense of inferiority melted away instantly. Bezanthume hissed at Ayame.

"What are you doing?! I already agreed to let you out, so there's no need for this! Stop it! Just please stop it and do as I tell you!" She couldn't really see with her eyes closed, but she thought that the light changed somehow. She was too afraid to open her eyes. She was just going to be trapped by the light of Bezanthume's eyes again.

"It's okay, woman, you can open your eyes now. I doubt if you're going to believe this any other way." Tsubaki's voice sounded surprised. Orihime opened her eyes and saw… white, white all around. She seemed to be floating in white light with her fairies around her. Bezanthume was nowhere to be seen. What the hell happened?

"Hey, look, a door!" Shun'ou shouted. With his high pitched voice it seemed like he was saying it louder than he actually intended. It had been weird for him to stay quiet this long. He was usually the talkative one.

He was right, there was a door. A door made out of white luminescent wood with a doorknob made out of shining silver. What did the door look like before? She couldn't remember, but she couldn't think of breaking this door with Tsubaki. Somehow it looked beautiful in its white glory. Like a simple wedding dress always looks beautiful for anyone but the one paying for it.

Orihime had to wonder why she compared a door to a wedding dress. Sure, the door was white and the traditional western wedding dress was white, but that's where the similarities ended. A door couldn't be anything like a wedding dress. Why did her mind keep on insisting that it was somehow like a wedding dress? Was it symbolic or something?

Her brain hurt.

"Hey, what happened to all the black stuff on the walls?" Shun'ou asked. He was immediately hit over the head by Tsubaki.

"The walls were the black stuff, you idiot! The demon was able to control the rock the walls were made out of! But… Where did the black stuff go?" Tsubaki was kicked in the jaw by Shun'ou immediately after he stopped talking.

"That was my point, you alcoholic bastard!" Shun'ou yelled after Tsubaki with a microscopic vein popping out of his small forehead. Tsubaki floated for a while, thinking about what just happened. When his stunned mind caught up, he immediately flew over to Shun'ou, grabbed his leg and pounded him repeatedly against the only solid object in the mysterious white space they were in, the luminescent white door.

"What did you say, you blonde haired faggot?!" Tsubaki kept on hitting Shun'ou's body against the door until Lily flew in and forced them apart. She kicked Tsubaki square in the balls to immobilize him and then flew over to Shun'ou to see if he was alright.

"What is going on with you guys?" Orihime asked and grabbed Tsubaki before he could charge at Lily. He obviously didn't like that and fought back like a rabid raccoon, but Orihime ignored it and made sure to keep him far away from her face.

"Let me go, you airheaded bitch!"

"Nah, don't worry about it, Orihime-san. They're always like this. Shun'ou just needs a couple of minutes and he'll be just fine." Lily said while pushing Shun'ou to float towards Ayame. Ayame was searching her kimono for something. Everything seemed routine to them. What exactly did go on inside her head when they were in there? Did they have a house where they lived or something? Maybe Ayame was the motherly and the one that did the laundry and Lily was the one who disciplined Shun'ou and Tsubaki for fighting, along with the other three…

"She's spacing out again, isn't she? See how her mouth is gaping open?" Lily asked Ayame. Ayame was administering green liquid from a bottle she pulled out of her kimono into Shun'ou's mouth. She dropped three drops down Shun'ou's mouth and then hid the bottle back into her kimono. Shun'ou jumped up and coughed up three gallons of blood. The sight was either extremely grotesque or extremely funny, since he was the size Barbie doll.

"I thought I told you to stop dropping sulfuric acid down my throat, Ayame!" He yelled in a raspy voice. The sulfuric acid had burnt his vocal cords a little. He was a little pale as well.

"It's the fastest way to wake you up when you're drunk or when Tsubaki had beaten you up. And it's fucking hilarious to see you clean up the mess you make every single time. Deal with it, Blondie." Ayame shot a murderously cold look towards Shun'ou and he tried to counter it with his own, but Ayame won inevitably. She always did. Shun'ou had no idea if he loved her or hated her, but if he was forced to decide now he would definitely say that he hated her. There was one screwed up bitch.

"Hey! Woman! Shouldn't you open that door already? It seems to be the only way out of here. But I can't actually see that much, SINCE YOU ARE SQUUESING THE LIFE OUT OF ME_,_ WOMAN!" Tsubaki bit Orihime's hand to snap her out of her own little world. It worked, but it also made Orihime slam Tsubaki against the floor and step on him a couple of times.

"Damn you… Woman…"

"I'm so sorry, Tsubaki-kun! I was just so freaked out because I thought a rabid raccoon was biting my hand." The rest of the fairies all glanced at each other and wondered was Tsubaki anything like a rabid raccoon. They burst out into laughter seconds later. Orihime looked at them with an extremely confused look on her face. She decided that she didn't actually want to know. Her fairies had been acting weird for the past couple of minutes. She walked over to the door ad placed her hand on the doorknob.

_Password/name/rite of passage/signature/spell/curse/enchantment_

Orihime let go of the silver doorknob and jumped back from the door. What the hell was that? It felt like electricity running up and down her spine. Did the door just speak to her? Was that even real? No, it couldn't have been.

"What happened, Orihime-san?" Ayame asked while watching Shun'ou clean up the blood he had coughed up earlier. She was giggling constantly, but showed a serious face when she turned to Orihime.

"I think the door just spoke to me…" Orihime said and pointed towards the door.

"What did it say?" Lily asked, looking and sounding only slightly curious.

"It was saying something about a password… Wait! Doors _are not_ supposed to talk!" Orihime shouted at Lily and Ayame. Everything was so wrong, so very wrong.

"And hairpins _are not _supposed to turn into six little talking fairies" Tsubaki replied sarcastically with a slightly more high pitched voice than usual. He shot one murderous glare after another towards Lily and she was sure to ignore each and every one.

Orihime sighed and sat down on the ground. She needed time to think and try and find out what exactly was going on. Somehow she had been trapped in this white space with only one other thing: A white wooden door that spoke to her. It seemed that the door was the only way to get out. Right, she knew that much, but why she was here and who put her in here was still undecided. The door spoke of a password and Orihime didn't have the slightest idea if she knew it or not. She could be trapped here forever.

It must have been either Bezanthume or Aizen. The two of them were the only people Orihime could think of that would be able to do something like this. Aizen's motives for trapping her in a white, blank space were obvious, but what about Bezanthume? He kidnapped her from her kidnappers to take her to his body and for her to set him free somehow. Right before Orihime was trapped in here Bezanthume told her to break the door with Tsubaki. Should she try that? Bezanthume was talking about a whole other door for her to break down, the door to his body. Oh, screw it!

"Tsubaki, could you break the door" Orihime ordered. She drew her knees close to her chest and covered her face with her hands. The door could explode for all she knew. Tsubaki only glanced at her for confirmation before charging at the door. He had a lot of pent up aggression to vent out on something, could as well be the door.

Tsubaki collected his energy around him and then concentrated it on his wings to make a cutting edge. Right before impact there was a flash of brilliant white light and Tsubaki suddenly realized he was lying face down on the pool of blood Shun'ou coughed up earlier, gagged and bound tightly. Dozens of different ways of cursing his damned luck flashed in his mind, along with the huge "WTF?!" in the forefront of his mind.

"What the fuck?!" Lily exclaimed.

"What the fuck?!" Ayame exclaimed.

"What the – " Shun'ou tried to exclaim before nearly coughing out his left lung. Having sulfuric acid poured down his throat always gave him a hell of a cough. He really, really hated Ayame right now.

"What in god's name?" Orihime exclaimed. Her eyes darted between the door and Tsubaki while she tried to figure out what just happened. Did the door just defend itself? Guess it did… But was it really necessary for it to humiliate Tsubaki? Or did it punish him from trying to break it? But that would be saying that the door could think and make decisions.

Orihime stood up and walked over to the door. She checked every inch of its surface for a dent or a crack, any evidence that Tsubaki's attack had worked. She didn't find any. She hit the door with her fist. No reaction, nor was there even a mark on the door. She grabbed the doorknob again. The words travelled up and down her spine like electricity again.

_Password/name/rite of passage/signature/spell/curse/enchantment_

She didn't let go of the doorknob, but the words only kept repeating themselves. What could the password be? But what was that about a signature or a rite of passage? What was that about a name? Who's name?

Why was Bezanthume so sensitive about his name?

_Click_

Orihime shook herself out of her thoughts and tried turning the doorknob. The doorknob turned without any sound and the door opened on its own weight when she stepped back. Why didn't she even try opening the door before? She just jumped back without even trying to turn the doorknob. Orihime thought that she really was dense and shrugged it off as that.

The room beyond the door wasn't really different from the white space she was in now. It was all white as well, but you could at least make out the walls and the size of the room. There was something else in the room as well: A pedestal with a crimson red orb resting on something that looked like black silk. Other than that there was nothing else in the room, not even a door or a window. No way out.

"It wasn't even locked? My god; you really are dense… Orihime-san." Ayame said while floating past her head. She sounded condescending.

"Give the girl a break." Lily said and flew after Ayame. At least one of them was on her side. "She has six little fairies living inside her head; it's not like there's any room for any intelligence." Why were the girl fairies so mean to her? Did this say something about her mental state? She felt a weight on her right shoulder. She turned her head to see Shun'ou sitting on her shoulder. He patted the top of her head to signal that he understood her anguish.

"Don't worry. They're like that only because they are expressing your suppressed emotions. They'll return back to normal when we get out of here." He smiled at her warmly and then flew over to Lily and Ayame, who were floating around the crimson orb. Hinagiku and Baigon also flew over to them. They also patted her head while passing her. She appreciated the gesture, but they had been awfully quiet… Where was Tsubaki?

Orihime looked back into the white space and saw Tsubaki lying in the pool of blood, still gagged and bound tightly. Orihime ran over to him and picked her up from the pool of blood by bending over. She didn't want to dirty the dress The Arrancar had made for her. She actually liked it, in a way. She wasn't so thrilled about the position of the fake "Hollow hole". It seemed kind of… suggestive. Orihime pulled out the little gag in Tsubaki's mouth. He took a couple of deep breaths before starting to shout.

"Damn it, woman! What took you so long?! I do not find lying in a pool of blood bound up like a freaking turkey very pleasing!" Several veins popped up in his little forehead and his face was redder than the blood on him. He was still bound tightly and Orihime felt tempted to keep him that way. Was Tsubaki acting out her suppressed rage or was he just genuinely this pissed off? Orihime decided not to answer him and joined the other fairies in gazing at the orb in awe. Tsubaki threatened everyone present with a painful death if someone didn't cut him free. No one paid him any attention. They were mesmerized by the orb.

The orb was the size of a basketball and an ominous crimson red glow emanated from it. It seemed like there was something like a red mist swirling around in the orb and Orihime lost all track of time while looking into the depths of the mysterious orb. She felt a stab of fear run through her when the mist were suddenly disturbed and something like a hand pressed against the orb's surface from the inside. She and all of the fairies around her looking at the orb jolted back and fell down on their asses. Orihime heard her heart race and felt cold sweat forming on her forehead.

"Wha… What…What the hell was that? You guys saw it, right? Right?" She asked her fairies in a raspy voice. Her throat seemed extremely dry right now. The fairies looked up towards the orb with shock written on their faces. She swallowed hard and gathered up the courage to stand up and check if the hand was still there. This was crazy. The hand was larger than her hand. There was no possible way that there could be someone actually trapped in that thing?

She got up to her knees, but hesitated to stand up completely. What if the hand was still pressed against the orb? What was she supposed to do then?

"COULD SOMEONE UNTIE ME ALREADY?!" Tsubaki yelled with all his might while trashing against the ropes he was tied with. The sudden noise caused Orihime to jump up and shriek in terror. The beating of her heart drowned out every other noise and black spots were dancing around her vision. She was hyperventilating. Where is a good paper back when you needed one? Lily hurried to silence Tsubaki by landing on his balls. Ayame untied Tsubaki and he curled in a whimpering ball on the ground.

She had to support herself on the pedestal and she felt the slippery black silk under her hand. The expensive fabric felt comforting in some way. She wrapped some of it around her fist and pulled it to her chest. She held the fabric to her cheek and let out a relieved sigh. The feeling of silk reminded her of home. Not that she actually had anything made out of silk in her closet, but she always had wished she would have. Some day…

"Orihime-san! The orb! The orb!" The fairies all screamed frantically. Orihime opened her eyes lazily and saw the orb rolling towards the edge of the pedestal. She stared at it blankly when it was rolling slowly towards the edge while her mind sluggishly realized what she was actually seeing. She dropped the black silk when her mind caught up to her eyes. Time seemed to slow down when the orb crossed over the edge of the pedestal.

Orihime lunged after the orb as it was falling to the ground. She was almost able to catch it, but her fingers only grazed over the smooth surface of the orb before it hit the ground.

_Crack_

The red mist exploded out of the orb and surrounded her in suffocating darkness. She opened her mouth to scream…

* * *

Orihime woke up tangled in her bed sheets, screaming as loud as she could. She fell off the edge of her bed and hit her head on the floor. Her jaw was clenched shut by the impact and she bit her tongue. Tears welled up in her eyes and the two pains combined made her stop screaming and snap back to reality.

"Ow ow ow ow! That hurt…" She blinked to clear her vision and looked around the room. She saw the ceiling of her apartment. She turned her head and saw a window without bars, the window of her apartment. Sun hit the apartment building across the street and there was a fluffy white cloud in the blue sky.

"What? A dream? Really? All that was a dream?" She untangled herself from her bed sheets and gazed in awe at the everyday things in her apartment. There was her kitchen, her stove, her cattle, her oven mittens, the picture of her brother, her TV, the remote to the TV she thought she had lost and… and…

"It was all a dream! Yay!" She raised her arms in celebration and noticed the smooth and slightly off-white fabric of her sleeves. The right sleeve was drenched with blood.

"These are not my pajamas…" She looked down to her feet and saw white boots stained with blood.

She was still wearing the dress the Arrancar had made for her.

"**Shut up… I have a headache…"**

* * *

**That's it! Sorry for the cliffhanger, but it's very late and I feel like it wouldn't seem natural to continue the story any longer. Not for me at least. If you have anything to say about the story at all, let me know by reviewing. I'll take every opinion! Good or bad! I'm actually looking forward for some flames. Oh, yeah, I don't own Bleach by the way.**

**Crazy Laughter**


	2. Hunger

**Hi there! First of all there are people I would like to thank. These people are: Irish12345 and Light of Darkness. You two are one of the few I know that read my story and I thank you and all the other people that read it!**

**Another big thank you goes to flower miko, who left an awesome review and thus gave me a spark to actually write this chapter. And remember, flower miko actually LEFT A REVIEW. That fills my heart with warmth... Or is it fudge? **

**Who cares! Anyways, there's another huge thank you still left. I hereby shout out a HUGE thank you to AisuHime, who was really supportive and actually tolerated my theories about the link between imagination and methed up ferrets. AisuHime knows what I'm talking about even though you don't have a clue.**

**Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter Two**

**Hunger**

"Aah! What are you? What are you doing here? How did you get here? How did I get here? What is going on?" Orihime questioned rapidly while pointing a shaky finger at Bezanthume.

"**I thought I told you to shut up! Anyone would get a headache from turning back time, you know…" **Bezanthume's voice rumbled and his form shifted slightly. His form resembled black and red mist shaped as a tall man in a hooded overcoat. The mists were moving constantly inside the frame of his form and had a similar mesmerizing effect as the mist in the crimson orb. Realization struck her like a sledgehammer.

"Bezanthume! You were trapped in that orb! Why didn't you tell me it was you?" Orihime asked, just a little angry. The hand had seriously creeped her out. Now that she thought about it, it was a little odd that he hadn't talked to her the whole time she was in that room. Was something stopping him?

"**I told you it was complicated… Now could you please be quiet? I have a headache that's the size of Las Noches right now and you screaming every one of your questions is not exactly helping." **His voice did sound pained and the mist he was made out of lost its shape for a split second. How can something made out of mist have a headache? Orihime was about to ask him when his form shifted and he looked like a tall man in a black hooded overcoat. She had forgotten that he could read her mind or something. The fact that he changed his shape to avoid her from asking him something showed how much he needed the silence.

Must be one hell of a headache, Orihime thought while trying to suppress all of the questions urging to be asked. She tip-toed to the bathroom and closed the sliding door as quietly she could. She really needed a bath. There had not been any chance to take a bath in Hueco Mundo, since there wasn't enough water there and Orihime felt the sweat and other grime that had built on his stay in Las Noches. It felt disgusting. She left the water running while she peeled off the Arrancar dress. She grimaced when she smelled her own skin. Didn't Ulquiorra have a sense of smell? She dropped into the bath while the water was still running and relished the feel of hot water against her skin. A hot bath was just what she needed to set things right and hopefully shed some light on all that had happened.

"Aah… This feels niiiceeee…" She muttered while sinking deeper into the water. She stretched out her body as well she could in her small bath. All of the tension in her body just seemed to melt away. She missed this even more than she originally thought. Her eyes drifted shut and she sank down into the therapeutic water. It was all like a distant dream now.

"**I am hungry. Can I bite you?"** Bezanthume's rumbling voice asked. It sounded like he was in the same room, but when he talked into her mind his voice came from everywhere… But why did it sound like it was coming from above her? She froze completely. Orihime remembered how tall he was and if he was standing over the bath _right now _his voice would definitely come from above her, not beside her. Is he actually watching me while I take a bath? That pervert!

Orihime opened her eyes and saw him standing over her. He was leaning over slightly, so that his hood was directly above her. She couldn't actually tell if he even had a face, since his hood covered his face completely in shadows. For a second she was too shocked to do anything but stare at him. How did he get in here without making a single sound? Well, Ulquiorra didn't make a sound when he wished not to, but still he would have to open the door. The moment of shocked awe passed though and she slammed her legs together and pulled them closer to her body, while trying to cover her breasts with one hand and trying to find something to throw at Bezanthume with the other.

"GET OUT! GET OUT, YOU PERVERT!" Orihime screamed and threw a sponge at his supposed face. The dry sponge did hit something inside Bezanthume's hood. He flinched back and two crimson red lights shone through from the depths of the hood when he stumbled back. The two lights looked like two rings of red light. Were they his eyes? Did he have his eyes closed when she threw the sponge at him? Still, his eyes were open now and directed at her and he didn't show any signs of leaving. She threw a shampoo bottle at him and he caught it easily. He had a black glove on his hand and Orihime couldn't make out if he had claws or not.

"Get out, Bezanthume!" She repeated and threw another random object at him. Bezanthume deflected the bar of soap with the shampoo bottle. His eyes turned towards her with the inhuman rage shining from them again and then he disappeared into thin air. The shampoo bottle he was holding just a second ago fell to the floor and cracked open. Damn, he was really tall… and a pervert, a tall pervert.

"**What was that for, Princess? I really am hungry, you know." **Bezanthume's voice rumbled from everywhere. She knew that it meant he was talking into her mind, but still it made her eyes dart around the room. She felt like she should cover herself, but she still felt dirty and stinky. Having Bezanthume talk to her while she bathed really felt disturbing.

"**Was it the surprise? Would it have been better if I told you that I was coming in before I actually did?" **Bezanthume questioned. It sounded like he had a notepad ready and was anxiously waiting for her answer. Or he was just ready to laugh at her reaction. Either way: she was not pleased.

"You shouldn't have barged in at all!" Orihime shouted at the ceiling. When his voice was everywhere you had the tendency to think upwards. My god! Did I just compare him to a god?

"**Thanks. It makes my confidence all bloated and shit, I think it will burst with joy any minute now. Do you have some weird code about baths or something? I sincerely do not know what your problem was." **Bezanthume's voice rumbled out. Snapping her out of any thoughts she was about to sink into. She snapped her mouth shut and she sunk back into the water again.

"Why did you have your eyes closed then?" Orihime said her thoughts out loud. If he didn't know about any hint of courtesy, why did he have his eyes closed? Bezanthume didn't speak into her mind, but she just knew somehow that he was shuffling uncomfortably.

"**You're surprisingly perceptive for someone who didn't notice that they had a new necklace…" **He was clearly avoiding the question, but he was right. She did have a new necklace. It looked like a miniature of the orb in the mystery room, but with a needle made out of silver or stainless steel poked through it. Now that she knew that his eye color was red, it disturbingly reminded her of an eye on a toothpick. She raised it up to eye level by the chain and watched the red and black mists turmoil inside. It was just as mesmerizing as it was with the original. Her mind wandered and started seeing shapes she recognized in the ever turning mists. Tatsuki-chan, Chizuru-chan, Ishida-kun, everyone she saw and missed from school. School… Wait. What day was it? What time was it?

"**You will be late for school." **Bezanthume rumbled behind the door of the bathroom. He didn't try to come in, but the light of his eyes still shone through the hazed glass. Either he was hunched over or the doorway was higher than she remembered. His voice sounded cold and Orihime had a feeling that this was payback for the stuff thrown at him.

"**No. I couldn't have caused this. I'm simply enjoying the situation. Mistakes and coincides, that's all this is, doesn't stop me from enjoying your panic though." **Bezanthume said with his voice laced with amusement. He didn't sound like he was chuckling, but he probably had a wide smirk on his face. Whatever that looked like… He saw her naked and she didn't even know what his face looked like, seemed unfair. She decided to put that aside for the moment and picked up the bar of soup from the floor and scrubbed it on the sponge. Then she started to frantically scrub herself.

"**You are not going to make it if you insist on doing it that way. You might be able to scrub yourself down in a minute, but what about your hair? And before you start screaming at me again and throwing stuff at me: I am not watching you. I can read your mind, remember?" **Bezanthume rumbled. He still had the grin in his voice and it made Orihime's blood boil. She felt like screaming at him, but… Well, to heck with it. She had reason to be pissed at him.

"YOU JUST SHUT UP! THERE'S NO WAY I COULD GET THERE IN TIME ANYWAYS! IF YOU DON'T HAVE A –" Orihime was able to scream out before Bezanthume interrupted her.

"**I do. And didn't I tell you that I had a headache? I never told you what time it was and I definitely didn't say I couldn't get you there in time. I just wanted to see you panic. It wasn't as amusing as I thought… You just kept shouting at me." **The smirk was out of his voice and his outline behind the door shuttered, just like the first time she shouted at him.

Orihime kept on scrubbing while she thought over what he said. She knew she was not going to make it even if she hurried, but was he going to do to make it faster? Wash her? Like she was going to let him feel her up right after he sneaked a peek at her naked. Not like she was going to let him feel her up in any circumstance.

"**Feeling you up would be a nice little bonus, but I can do it even without touching you or coming in there. Do you give me permission, Princess?" **Bezanthume's voice rumbled. Him being inside her head all the time was really getting annoying. She stopped scrubbing and as an impulse threw the sponge at the door. It slammed on the door and left a trail of soap when it slid down the glass and down to the floor. Bezanthume didn't seem to flinch. Why did he have to be so mean? And why couldn't he get out of her head already?!

"**I'll take that as a yes…" **Bezanthume's outline showed that he raised his right hand up with his fingers pointing up. His hand made a sharp movement to the side and there was a loud cracking sound, like bones breaking.

The sound echoed in the bathroom unnaturally long and after it stopped her bathwater started acting weird. It felt like the water had suddenly started to push her down and draw her deeper. She tried to get out, but the water squeezed tighter around her ankles and pulled her legs out from under her. It was a miracle she didn't hit her head on the side of the bath. When her head was under the water it immediately started to constrict around every inch of her body. She had had her blood pressure taken in the annual health exam and she had not liked the pressure on her arm. It had actually hurt a bit. She never could have imagined what it would have felt like to have that pressure on every inch of her skin. She couldn't breathe and it felt like her eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. Every inch of her skin was experiencing the same kind of pain and her head felt like it was going to be crushed.

There was another loud cracking sound and the pressure was immediately gone, along with the water, the bath, the bathroom and her apartment. She was standing under the tree in the school grounds. She and her friends had their lunches under it when it was warm enough. Actually, it didn't matter where she was. The actual question was how she got there.

"What did you just do and how, Bezanthume?" She didn't plan on sounding murderous, but when she said what she thought her voice was dripping with poison. She noticed that she had her fists clenched at her sides. Her school bag was set at her feet. She was also already wearing her school uniform. She looked up and saw Bezanthume dangling from a tree branch. Either he was Spider-man or he was defying gravity, since it looked like he was actually standing upside down.

"**I'm not Spider Man." **He paused and took a long breath.** "Okay, let me see: First I trapped you in a illusion were the water attacked you, I stopped time, I felt you up, I washed you, I felt you up again, I washed your hair twice, I felt you up once again, I dried you up and brushed your hair, after that I dressed you while feeling you up, then I flew you here, forgot the thing at your feet, felt you up to console for my lack of judgment, went back to get it and when I got back I unfroze time…" **He took another long breath.** "That's about it. I'm hungry, can I bite you?" **Bezanthume rumbled with a lecherous smirk lacing his voice. His red eyes were looking down to hers and if she was able to reach him now, or whenever he was standing up straight, she would poke her fingers into his cranium. That's how much she hated him right now.

"Did you really feel me up?" It seemed kind of farfetched for Bezanthume to be able to feel her up that many times if he slammed her against a wall for her accusing him of attempted rape. She was really mad at him, but she was who she was and she couldn't stop thinking the best of people.

"**No, but you really should have seen your face when I said that." **Bezanthume pointed a glowed finger at her and let out a chuckle. He spun around in the air and landed next to her without making a sound. He motioned towards the doors of the school. Orihime shot one last venomous look at him before completely dismissing her anger. She picked up her bag and started walking towards the school. Bezanthume followed a few paces behind. She whirled around and stared at him. He stared right back until she had to look away. There was no way someone could beat someone in a staring contest when one of the participants had luminescent eyes that shone through their eyelids.

"Why are you following me? People are going to be suspicious if you just walk into the classroom." Orihime said to him. Did Bezanthume really think the people in her class wouldn't notice a guy that was at least eight feet tall and had fiery-red eyes?

Bezanthume didn't answer her. He just stared down to her for a minute before turning around and walking out to middle of the street. He stood there for a couple of minutes before getting hit by a bus. Orihime dropped her bag and raised her hands to cover her mouth. She felt numb. Why would he do that? Was it something she said?

"**Does that answer your question?" **A voice rumbled from behind her. Orihime spun around and saw Bezanthume towering over her. He looked like nothing had happened. Bezanthume reached down and grabbed her shoulders. He raised her off the ground and turned her to face the street again.

"**We're wasting enough time already, so just look." **Bezanthume said and pointed to the gates of the school. Orihime blinked to get the tears out of her eyes. She saw a man in a school uniform walking across the street with his bag slung on his shoulder in a carefree, or "cool", manner. Orihime could have recognized him in any situation, but the orange hair was a dead giveaway.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked. She felt her heart skip a beat from seeing Kurosaki-kun, but Bezanthume puzzled her more. She looked over her shoulder and up to his eyes. His hood nodded slightly before he started to speak.

"**Kurosaki Ichigo: the original cause of your powers, a first class spirit medium and a future substitute shinigami. He can see just as much as a spirit can, but is stronger than most shinigami. My point is that if he didn't react to me getting hit by a bus just now, he cannot see me. It should be impossible for anyone else to see me either.** **I am not a spirit, try to remember that. Act natural now, he noticed you." **Bezanthume stepped back and gave her a little push. For once he sounded completely serious, or at least Orihime couldn't hear a smirk. How did she do that in the first place?

"Morning, Inoue." Ichigo said while passing her. Orihime didn't answer him. How could she _hear _a smirk? It seemed impossible. Was it because he was in her head all the times? Perhaps there was some kind of mental feedback. Her eyes glazed over and her jaw relaxed while she looked out into the distance.

**Bezanthume**

Bezanthume looked at Inoue Orihime and then looked at Kurosaki Ichigo. He didn't seem too phased by this. So this was normal for her? Inoue Orihime did seem like the type to zone out, but still, should he do something? Maybe rip out Kurosaki Ichigo's heart? No, he wouldn't hear the end of it if he did that. She would yell and throw things at him and then yell some more, until he would be forced to turn back time again and undo it. So, ripping out his heart would not solve anything, it would just give him another headache…

Whose heart am I going to pull out then? There had to be something he could do, someone he could kill. He stared intently at Kurosaki Ichigo while trying to figure out what to do. Kurosaki Ichigo stepped closer to Inoue Orihime and nudged her a little with his finger. Bezanthume raised an eyebrow and wondered if it could be considered assault. He would naturally be forced to tear him to shreds limb by limb if he hurt Inoue Orihime. His shoulders slumped when he realized that it would just end up the same as with him tearing out his heart. Damn, humans were annoying!

"Snap out of it, you'll be late for class." Kurosaki Ichigo said when Inoue Orihime turned her head towards him. Inoue Orihime immediately perked up and grabbed her school bag. She started walking towards the doors of the school with Kurosaki Ichigo. Bezanthume followed them after he suppressed the sudden urge to disembowel Kurosaki Ichigo. She was babbling on about some trivial matter and Kurosaki Ichigo looked just as interested as Bezanthume was. With the exception that Kurosaki Ichigo was able to suppress the smirk trying to force its way on his face. Orihime stopped talking for a second and gave Bezanthume a sour look. She kept on babbling on happily when they walked through the doors.

How does she do that? My hood hides my face completely, so she should not know when I'm smirking. I thought that she could hear it in my voice, but she noticed it a couple of times already when I hadn't said anything. Is she psychic? That would definitely be interesting.

They were walking down a hall towards their classroom when Bezanthume noticed a girl with glasses appear out of an empty classroom and start tiptoeing towards Inoue Orihime. What is this, an assassin? She's wearing the same uniform, so either she goes to this school or it's a disguise. Should I let Inoue Orihime know? No, what's the point? She doesn't have the reflexes to react quickly enough. I'd better take care of this.

"Hi there, 'Hime!" She hollered and started running.

Suddenly the girl leaped at Inoue Orihime. Bezanthume reacted in the way most natural to him; excessive violence. He grabbed the mystery girl's head and then slammed her through a wall. Damn, he had not realized how he had missed the sound of bones breaking. He pulled her back by her ankle and threw her out of the window. He started charging up fire in his palms to reduce the assassin's body to ash when Inoue Orihime stopped him.

Humans were annoying and perplexing creatures.

**Ichigo**

Ichigo looked over his shoulder when he heard Chizuru cry out Orihime's name like she always did before groping her. He moved his forearm between her and Orihime by reflex. He wasn't the one to hit girls, but Tatsuki wasn't around and she would right about bite his head off if he let Chizuru get her way with Orihime. Chizuru's eyes widened just before she was about to hit his arm and crash down on the floor. He noticed how her hair suddenly flattened against her head and her face contorted like she was in pain. Her head was suddenly jerked back and she flew through the wall and shocked the class on the other side. In his eyes it looked like she was slammed through the wall by something. If so, why couldn't he see it? Was this how it was for people who couldn't see hollows? Well, who cared what it was anyways? He had to do something.

He stepped in front of Inoue to at least protect her from whatever this was. Everything looked like it was in slow motion. He saw how people further down the corridor stepped out of their classrooms to see what was going on. He also noticed when Chizuru's body was flung out of the rubble in a wide arc. Her face passed him by mere inches and he could see her glasses where shattered and her right eye was a pool of blood. In her whole face it didn't look like there was a single bone in its rightful place. She looked like something out of a horror movie. The window shattered into a cloud of light around Chizuru's body when she was thrown out of the window. He was able to make out every single detail of her death.

"Stop it, …!" Orihime screamed. He felt like there was something he heard, but still couldn't make out. It felt like his ears could hear it, but his mind was unable to process it. Like something was censuring his hearing and replacing the words he heard with the sound of static, or the boom of a waterfall.

**Orihime**

"**What exactly is wrong now, Princess?" **Bezanthume asked and blew out the fire in his hands. He sounded completely calm, like he hadn't just killed one of her classmates in cold-blood. Her eyes darted between the blood on and around the hole in the wall and the blood on what was left of the window. Kurosaki-kun was standing in front of her in an attempt to protect her. She stepped out to his side and looked at his face. He had blood trailing down his cheek and a line of small drops of blood went across his shirt. She looked up to the window and saw Chizuru floating in the middle of thousands shards of glass. She had blood in her hair and around her head as a gruesome halo. Orihime looked behind her and saw people standing in the courtyard of the school with their faces upturned and their mouths gaping open. She saw how one of her classmate's bag was halfway to the ground. He had seemingly dropped it from shock right before time was stopped. It was so quiet.

"You stopped time." She said monotonously. Why was she so calm? Why wasn't she crying? Why wasn't she screaming at Bezanthume? What was wrong with her? She felt empty inside. She turned her eyes to Bezanthume. She raised her hand to her chest.

"**Yes…" **Bezanthume said slowly. His voice had more emotion than her did and his voice sounded hesitant, almost scared. He shifted uncomfortably and his shoulders slumped down a little. His eyes were fixated on her hand. **"I guess you want me to reverse it now? I thought she was an assassin after your life. I had no other choice!" **His voice didn't just sound scared, he was terrified. What was he so afraid of?

"**I never broke the contract…" **He said while bringing his hand up and snapping his fingers. The world fluttered away with the sound like a reflection on the surface of water. It was all really anticlimactic. The world didn't start running backwards before your eyes; reality didn't fall apart like in a huge earthquake. There were just soft tremors running through the air and they took the world away one detail after another, changed it. The hole in the wall faded away and was replaced by its unscathed self from a minute ago. The blood all around it and on Kurosaki-kun was washed away like night rain in the morning. Chizuru-chan shimmered away like a mirage and the shards of glass melted together to form the intact glass. She closed her eyes and felt something like warm rain wash over her.

...

Students filled the halls with chatter while walking to their classrooms and while chatting in them. She noticed she was right in the middle of saying something, but she couldn't remember what she was about to say. She looked to her right and saw Kurosaki-kun walking beside her. Looked like he didn't notice, or he wasn't listening in the first place.

"Good morning, 'Hime!" Chizuru's voice hollered from behind. Great, she was about to get felt up again. She liked Chizuru, she really did, but she was a little too… touchy. And she wasn't talking about emotions.

The expected groping never came. Instead she heard how someone crashed down on the floor right behind her. Orihime turned around and saw Chizuru on the floor. She was getting up while rubbing her neck.

"Damn… Kurosaki, I didn't know you hit girls." She said in a raspy voice. She coughed a little and then looked up at Kurosaki-kun. He simply shrugged.

"Tatsuki would have bit my head off if I let you do whatever you were going to do right now; 'The lesser of two evils' and all that." He stated and offered a hand down to Chizuru-chan. She took the hand and dusted herself off, nodding a thank you in the process. She walked with them to the classroom and sat down in her desk.

"**I have the worst headache in the history of the universe… Can I bite someone?" **Bezanthume rumbled. Orihime turned in the direction of his voice and saw that he was leaning against a wall in the corner of the room. He sounded and looked extremely hungry. He was literally shaking from hunger.

Orihime realized that he had kept telling her that he was hungry over and over again, but she had ignored him every time. There had been always something else going on. Like him seeing her naked, or him feeling her up. But what was she supposed to do? No one else could see him and she was in the middle of class. It was not like she could start talking to a demon no one else could see.

"**Please, just give me permission to bite someone. I'm so hungry I can't see straight." **He raised his head to look at her and she noticed that the two small rings of light that were his eyes had started to flutter like a dying flame. That couldn't be good. But did he have to bite someone? Would she really be okay with letting a demon go around and bite people? What if he gave them some STD from hell?

"**Please believe when I say that there will not be any STD's or other diseases. I just need blood. I used too much of my power for one day. And even though I'm a demon, I'm not from hell. Please, Princess! Are you okay with starving me to death then?" **Bezanthume rumbled out from the corner. She noticed that Rukia perked up on her seat, like she had heard or sensed something. Both Bezanthume and Orihime looked at her in surprise. Did she just hear Bezanthume? No, she must have sensed something else nearby. Bezanthume turned back to Orihime and Orihime turned back to her desk. She didn't want to make anyone suspicious.

Well, if he is in my head all the time, then he should be able to hear this. She concentrated intently on an "OK" sign. She glanced over her shoulder and didn't see Bezanthume anywhere. He was gone. Hope he doesn't kill anyone. Seriously, Bezanthume, do not kill anyone! Can you hear me?

"**Yeah, I get it already. No one will die; they'll be anemic, but not dead." **Bezanthume's irritated voice rumbled from everywhere. His presence disappeared for the first time since he turned back time for the first time in Las Noches. It felt like she could breathe again. She could always feel his eyes on the back of her head… Maybe she had radiation poisoning? Who knows what kind of radiation those eyes give out?

"**You do not have radiation poisoning! Okay, okay, I'll try and ignore your thoughts. It's not like there's a switch or something… What's wrong with my eyes?" **Bezanthume's voice rumbled. Orihime decided to ignore him. Math class was about to start.

**Bezanthume**

Okay, where to go? Where would be some nice blood to quench my thirst? Bezanthume closed his eyes and tried to set his senses to find what he was looking for, but his body was shaking and his stomach was cramping so much that it made any concentration impossible. There was no other choice: He would have to grab a quick snack in some secluded place to set his nerves for hunting his real meal. I never should have let this get this far. I'm about to lose control completely.

Bezanthume flexed his wings and rose into the sky. Now he just had to find someone in a secluded place. Usually it would be easy for him, but with his hunger messing with his powers he had to go with his eyes and the abilities of his body. His eyes were better than a hawk's, but it still didn't help him to find what he was looking for. His references were something that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. He had to find something that was starting to become a rarity in this world: innocence.

He flew over a large wooded area, a park, and started looking down for a victim. He saw a playground full of kids. They would probably be perfect for his taste, but each and every one of the little bastards had at least one of their parents watching them. With his powers as they were he was bound to cause a chaos if he would pick one of them up into the sky. No, it had to be secluded. He would worry about his preferences later. Someone alone where no one could see them would do just fine. It was a public park, but it was still early and there weren't that many people around, so a jogger could still be safe. This was harder than he remembered. Don't people jog anymore?

Bezanthume noticed some movement under an oak tree. He swooped down lower and took a closer look. He really couldn't believe his luck! There was about a twelve year old girl there feeding a squirrel. There seemed to be no one around and she was totally fixated on the furry little disease spreader. Bezanthume retracted his wings and landed right behind the kid. The squirrel probably felt the tremor of him touching down and ran up into the tree with its cheeks filled with peanuts that the kid had been feeding it.

Bezanthume didn't have enough self-control anymore to try and find a more secluded place before digging in. The kid was still squatting down on the ground, so Bezanthume grabbed her by the head and raised her neck up to his face. She smelled so right, so innocent! He held her small body against his chest to stop her neck from snapping under the strain of supporting her body. He wasn't supposed to kill her.

**Yuzu**

Yuzu felt someone's hot breathing on her neck. She tried to struggle and get away, but the hand on her head and the one around her chest made it impossible for her to move her upper body. She wasn't sure what she could do after she got loose, but she was not going to let this happen. So, she couldn't move her arms or head, but she could kick him and try to hit a sore point. That was what Karin kept telling her to do if something like this happened: "Go for the crotch and don't bother holding back. They're sickos and they definitely deserve it." She started kicking him with the heels of her feet and tried to fight herself out of his grip. It didn't look like he even noticed her attempts. What else was there? Oh yeah!

"Hel –" Yuzu tried to yell "Help! Rape!" with all her might, like she had been told to, but a piercing pain on the right side of her neck turned her call for help into a pathetic whine. What was he doing? Did he stab her? She was not going to be a victim of some random homicidal pervert in a park!

The pervert's hand moved from gripping her head to her forehead and forced her head to lean on his shoulder, leaving her neck even more exposed. She felt his hot breath on her neck again and something that felt like hair tickled her cheek. He was leaning over to her neck, so she should be able to see whoever the pervert was, but there was nothing. She wasn't good at seeing spirits, but she could always see at least a shimmer, but now there was no other indication of its existence than the touch. She felt another jolt of intense pain and felt how it pressed its face against her neck. She felt the teeth sink in deep and tasted the metallic flavor of blood in her mouth. He was biting her neck! Actually biting her neck! What was he, a vampire?

Well, she did believe in spirits and such, so it wouldn't be such a stretch… That's irrelevant now! What was relevant right now was that this thing was drinking her blood and crushing her windpipe in the process. Her body started feeling heavy and cold.

**Bezanthume**

The girl's struggle gradually weakened and the warmth of her body felt distant against his body. If he were to go any further, she would most definitely die of blood loss. His hunger had only worsened from this little snack, but strangely, his actual need for blood was more than fulfilled. Spending half of an eternity trapped does wonders for your appetite. He would have to go and find some other victim, but with his powers back in check that should be easy.

Sighing Bezanthume let go of the girl and let her fall to the ground. She looked down at her small deathly pale body and wondered if he had taken it a little too far. He was surprised that the girl found the strength to turn her head towards his face. Her eyes seemed to be fixated on him, even though he knew that was impossible. What was she looking at then?

A drop of blood trailed down his chin and dropped on the girl's hair. She was looking at the blood on his fangs. Her blood wasn't invisible like he was, so she should be seeing a set of fangs floating in the air. That would explain the look of terror on her face.

What's her name anyways? And I can't actually leave her here, Inoue Orihime's mind set would not approve, I'd better take her home. Now that he had his powers back he could just look into her mind and dig out the information. There should not be any harm to the girl's psyche if she didn't start fighting back. In her present condition it was miraculous that she was even conscious. Bezanthume started muttering a string of words that no one could understand, that is if they could hear him in the first place. His fingers moved along with the words and drew invisible runes and symbols in the air. There were easier ways to read someone's thoughts, but if you wanted to extract certain information from someone's mind without torture it got a little trickier. He kneeled down and placed one finger between the girl's brows. Her whole body became limp and her eyes fluttered shut. Good, he remembered the spell right. Well, her intestines didn't come out of her ears and strangle her, so he probably got it right. Now: What is your name?

"Kurosaki Yuzu…" The girl responded in a monotonous voice. Wait, did she say Kurosaki? As the guy at the top of my current hit list? What is your brother's name?

"Kurosaki Ichigo… Ichi-nii…" She answered. Fuck, this was not good. He just drained the blood out of Inoue Orihime's crush's sister. She will figure out that it was him who did this. It's not like there are any other blood sucking demons running around. The hollows eat souls and don't really care about the body, so he couldn't pin this on a hollow… How about a bount? They're practically vampires. But bounts suck out the soul and crumble the body into dust. For him to stage this as a bount attack he would be forced to go against Inoue Orihime's orders.

No bounts. He would just have to make best of the situation as it was. Turning back time wouldn't help anything. If he did that, then the act of him drinking her blood would be made void and his hunger would come back that much worse.

Where do you live? Show it to me.

_A building with a big sign saying "Kurosaki Clinic". They lived in the same building with their clinic and she and her sisters acted as nurses when needed. Ichi-nii was useless at times like that. Dad would always goof off and beat up Ichigo for no particular reason. Ichigo could usually manage, but when he was down Dad would land a hit and – _

For the sake of all that exist, please stop already! I do not care about your family history. So, it's a building with a sign saying "Kurosaki clinic"?

"Yes…" Yuzu answered in a deadpan voice. Bezanthume took his finger of her skin and her whole body relaxed. She wasn't bleeding anymore. Either the regenerative agents in his saliva were working faster than he anticipated, or she had no more blood left to spill. He tried to find a pulse on the side of her neck he had not bit through. He was lucky. There was a faint, but still steady pulse. The place he was going to drop her off at was a clinic, so she should be taken care of.

He picked her body up from the ground and slung her over his forearm like a piece of cloth. Humans can be this tiny… So they grow in size with age? This is a twelve year old… How small are they when they are born? Bezanthume spread his wings out and launched up into the sky. He had a vague image of the location of this girl's house, but it should not be that hard to find with the sign saying "Kurosaki clinic".

Yet, somehow it took him ten minutes to find the freaking house. By the time he got there he was so majorly pissed off that he blasted the roof to kingdom come, flew in, dropped Yuzy and flew out through the wall; Leaving one destroyed room (Ichigo's) and a seriously shocked and currently panicking Kurosaki Isshin.

* * *

**Review and tell me what I did wrong and what I accidently got right. That's all.**


	3. Feathered Wings

**Chapter Three**

**Feathered Wings**

Bezanthume flew into the school in high spirits. He knew that there would be consequences for his poor choice on one particular victim, but he felt full for the first time in… Actually, he wasn't sure how long. He had slept for the most of the time he was trapped in that orb. It was just pure luck that he was disturbed out of his slumber when Inoue Orihime was in Hueco Mundo.

Bezanthume used his wings to fly through the hallways and stairways of the school. His wind span was larger than both, but he simply phased through the walls and other obstacles. He couldn't be seen and he could make himself intangible for a limited time. It was convenient. He flew through the wall of Inoue Orihime's class just to freak her out. He flew right at her and dodged just in the last second. This time her reacting was worth it. She let out a scream, dropped her book and protected her head with her hands. Bezanthume let out a laugh at a frequency that he knew to make her ears itch.

Bezanthume landed next to her desk and smiled widely behind the shadows of his hood. Everyone in her class was looking at her in shock. For Bezanthume's great surprise everyone just seemed shrug it off. Was this normal for her as well? Inoue Orihime gave him a quick scolding glance while picking up her book and then tried to concentrate on the class again. Bezanthume didn't retract his wings just for that reason. He could feel the question itching in her head and he wasn't planning on answering it before she said it out loud.

Kurosaki Ichigo's cell phone started to ring suddenly and Inoue Orihime's attention was attracted to it. Kurosaki Ichigo hurried to pull out his cell phone and silence it, but when he saw the number calling his face turned even more serious looking.

"I'm sorry, but I'll have to take this." Kurosaki Ichigo said while hurrying out of the classroom. Both Bezanthume and Inoue Orihime were concentrating solely on hearing the conversation. That proved to be impossible for Inoue Orihime, since Kurosaki Ichigo was only able to say "What is it?" before the person on the other side said "Yuzu's hurt. You'll have to come to the hospital, Ichi-nii." in a broken voice. Inoue Orihime heard Kurosaki Ichigo run down the hallway. Bezanthume thought that it was admirable for his other sister to call him and let him know. Well, he had an idea of what their father was like, so it wasn't such a surprise. Kurosaki Isshin was probably too caught up in screaming at the doctors treating her daughter. Bezanthume knew that the little snack of a girl would be perfectly fine with a simple blood transfusion, but if the doctors started to treat the regenerative agents in her wound…

"**Do you want to follow him, Princess?" **Bezanthume asked Inoue Orihime. He knew her answer already and intended the question to only be a nudge for her to spring into action. It worked. Inoue Orihime's arm shot up and she asked if she could be excused because she didn't "feel so good". The teacher gave her permission to leave. Bezanthume was surprised. He had thought that he would have been forced to give the teacher's mind a nudge for her to agree, but she agreed before he did that. Was _this _normal for her as well? Interesting…

Bezanthume Followed after Inoue Orihime when she walked out of the classroom. He glanced at the class to see what they thought about this. Arisawa Tatsuki had a sly smile on her face and she was giving Orihime a mental thumbs up. Bezanthume actually agreed with her and the images running through her head. It would be interesting to create the conditions suited for Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime to "get it on". He turned his eyes to another face he knew from what he was able to dig up from Inoue Orihime's mind. Kuchiki Rukia wasn't looking at the teacher, the board, or Inoue Orihime.

Was she looking at him? She was squinting her eyes and blinking continuously, like she saw something, but wasn't sure if it was more than a pigment of her imagination. Bezanthume turned his whole attention to this petite girl with huge eyes. What exactly did he know about her? She was a shinigami for one; Kurosaki Ichigo got the jumpstart to his powers from her residue strength. She was an unofficial part of the Kuchiki family; there was no Kuchiki blood in her, so it couldn't be anything from the Kuchiki blood.

Bezanthume walked closer to her. He didn't pay enough attention to his surroundings and nudged a desk. He still had his wings out and they caused their own problems. His wings brushed against someone's face and made them start screaming about spiders in their hair. Bezanthume turned his eyes back to Kuchiki Rukia.

She was looking straight at him. She was trying to make out his size and form. Her eyes were following the lines of his wings and coat. If there had been any doubt in her mind if there was something there, it was gone completely. Her eyes darted between the closest window and door. She was dependant on Kurosaki Ichigo if there was a hollow attack, and that was what he looked right now. She was searching for the best means of escape. She couldn't even use any kido properly anymore…

Kido… as in Demon Arts? Bezanthume felt like laughing out loud and because the only one that could hear him properly was gone he let out a rumbling fit of laughter. Demon Arts indeed! Kuchiki Rukia prided herself in being talented in Demon Arts! It would make sense if she could see at least an outline of an actual demon. Bezanthume turned around and walked through the wall. He remembered to make himself intangible, so he didn't crash through it. He walked calmly down the hall and out to the courtyard to where he knew Inoue Orihime would be. She did want to follow Kurosaki Ichigo, but she had no idea what the actual emergency was that got him to run in the first place.

"**He's headed to the hospital. I can give you a lift if you want." **Bezanthume said in a loud voice. He enjoyed seeing Inoue Orihime jump from surprise at his words. He flexed his wings to specify the way he was going to give her the _lift. _Inoue Orihime stared at his wings in awe. Bezanthume knew that they were very impressive in size and color layout, so he gave her a second to soak them in before snapping her out of her thoughts.

What Inoue Orihime saw was a pair of feathered wings arching above his already impressive frame. He had them folded behind his back and the feathers on the tip of his wings were almost touching the ground and the joints of his wings were a couple of feet above his head. The wings were mostly an almost unnaturally dark color that was darker than the black of space. That might have seemed so because there were lines of bright-red feathers running along the black feathers, contrasting the black completely. Just to humor Inoue Orihime's curiosity for a change Bezanthume spread out his wings and showed the quite simple design on them.

There was one line of red feathers following the top of the wing, until it reached the joint and spread out into four different lines. One of the lines continued along the original and continued along the whole wing and to the very tip of the wing. The three other lines of feathers arched down slightly and spread out evenly on the section of wing after the joint where they split up.

In other words: It looked like the wing of a bat, but was still a normal feathered wing with an extraordinary color pattern.

"**Against popular belief: Most demons do not have bat-like wings. Actually, Lucifer was said to be a fallen angel with crippled wings, so I have no idea where someone got the idea that demons have bat-like wings. I guess it's just more convenient for a culture with a belief system saying that doves are the symbol of purity and hope… Oh, wait… We're in Japan? That's a shock… You should ignore everything I just said, you probably don't have a slightest idea what I just rambled about." **Bezanthume seemed to zone out and look out into the distance. When he snapped out of it he immediately though that Inoue Orihime's condition could be contagious. The fact that it even crossed his mind was almost a sure sign.

"Why is Kurosaki-kun going to the hospital?" Inoue Orihime asked. The timing of someone close to Kurosaki-kun getting admitted to a hospital and Bezanthume running free biting people started to bother her. It seemed too big of a coincidence to actually be one. "Who exactly was hospitalized?" Inoue Orihime had a surprising firm tone in her voice. She seemed to demand an answer, rather than asking it.

Bezanthume shuffled uncomfortably and his wings caused gushes of wind that blew Inoue Orihime's hair back. Well, it was not like delaying it will do any good.

"**Kurosaki Yuzu. Severe case of anemia and they probably suspect internal bleeding. There is none, I swear. She will be alright with a simple blood transfusion, but the doctors can't know that. I have a reason to hurry to the hospital just as much as you do. I am not to cause a single death, right?" **Bezanthume rumbled. Before Inoue Orihime had the chance to start shouting at him he swept her off her feet and launched off into the sky. His wings did not work like normal weathered wings. There was an actual meaning for the lines of bright red feathers. He could charge the lines of feathers with energy and shoot it out from the tips of the lines. He could also control the contribution of energy between the four different lines.

In other words it meant that he could fly incredibly fast, but could still control his flight perfectly by only slightly flexing and turning his wings and controlling the force of the released energies. Flying was something he could never become tired of, but it didn't seem like Inoue Orihime shared his thoughts. He had not known that it was possible for someone to scream that long without passing out. So her lungs were bigger than average as well…

"**Am I going too fast for you?" **Bezanthume asked. He flexed his wings a little and the lines of fiery-red light dimmed considerably. Now they were practically gliding along. Inoue Orihime finally stopped screaming and stared at the ground passing below them. He heard how her heart raced and smelled the pheromones she was letting out. She was afraid, but also excited by the new experience.

He was surprised when her hands grabbed on to his coat. He took a quick peek into her mind and saw that she would feel safer with her hands around his neck for support, but the position she was in made it impossible for her arms to reach around his neck. Well, that did make sense; he could drop her at any time.

Bezanthume spun around in the air and let go of Inoue Orihime. He allowed her to fall for a couple of seconds before diving in and snapping her back on his arms, this time he just positioned her so that she could have her hands around his neck. For some reason she didn't appreciate the gesture. Her heart was racing even faster than before and she smelled of adrenaline and fear. She started shouting at him. He wasn't that surprised. She seemed to shout at him about a lot of minor and obscure things. He tuned her out quickly. She was not going to say anything of context and if she did he could just read her mind and find out. For the moment he just decided to enjoy the feeling of freedom flying gave him. He made a couple of circles around the hospital. He caught an unpleasant mental image from Inoue Orihime's mind. She compared him to a vulture circling above a dying animal. He might be a demon, but he still had his pride.

Bezanthume flew over to the roof of the hospital and cut off the energy flowing out of his wings and landed while flexing his wings to lessen the impact on Inoue Orihime. If it was just him he could nullify the kinetic energy easily, but when he was carrying someone doing that would cause the nullifying surge of energy to go through their body. He touched down on the ground and lowered Inoue Orihime on her shaky legs. The adrenaline still in her system made her movements jittery. Humans were interesting creatures indeed.

"**I'm not sure if it's a good idea for you to go in just yet." **Bezanthume said while walking to the door on the roof of the hospital. It was locked. Bezanthume could just rip it straight out of the wall, but there had to be some alarm on it and the Kurosaki family wouldn't be so happy about something tearing its way into the hospital right after one of them had been attacked. How do you get doors open without breaking them?

"Why shouldn't I, so that you can bite Yuzu again?" Orihime said venomously. Bezanthume sighed. Why is it so hard to understand that he did that just because he had to? Wait, maybe the problem is not the fact that I bit someone, but the fact that I bit Yuzu? Inoue Orihime doesn't know about my references. She probably thinks that I bit her just because I have some weird fixation with kids… Well, there's some truth in that, but it's just because their usually conveniently innocent and I feel a graving for their blood. Give me an innocent adult and I'll dig in just the same, they actually have more blood, but you try finding an innocent adult these days.

"**No. It's because you supposedly followed Kurosaki Ichigo and now you would arrive here before him. That does not make sense and would cause suspicion. I do not wish to be revealed just yet. The time and space continuum has been shook enough already… Could I get this door open from the inside?" **Bezanthume said and walked through the door. It swung open a couple of seconds later. He motioned for Inoue Orihime to follow and turned to walk down the stairs. He retracted his wings to save energy; he would have to turn them intangible all the time if they were out. And if he used up too much energy he would have to bite someone again… Inoue Orihime would not be pleased.

"Why did you have to go and bite Yuzu?" Inoue Orihime asked. Her voice sounded sad. That was unexpected. She should be angry and shouting at him. Well, who cares, things are as they are. She closed the door behind her as she followed Bezanthume down the stairs.

"**I can't satisfy my hunger with just any kind of blood. I need blood with certain traits and Kurosaki Yuzu had those traits. I flew her over to her home afterwards. You have no idea what could have happened if I left her lying in the park. There are all kinds of freaks around that could have done something truly horrible to her." **Bezanthume rumbled. He could feel Inoue Orihime's eyes on his back, specifically on his back. What could she be looking at? It is extremely irritating! If she doesn't stop that right now, I swear I'm going to rip out her –

"Where did your wings go?" Inoue Orihime asked. Bezanthume turned around and looked at her in surprise. He was not surprised by the question, but by the fact that this girl was not shouting at him and trying to gouge his eyes out. Did he break her in some point? Inoue Orihime stopped as well. Bezanthume noted that they were now on eye-level with each other.

"**Shouldn't you be mad at me right now? I did attack a little kid, whatever the conditions were. That is something that should make you try and gouge my eyes out, you know." **Bezanthume said and leaned over to her. Close enough for her to actually try and gouge out his eyes. She was standing half way up on the stairwell while he was leaning over from one of the floor platforms. He watched the emotions play out on her face with great interest. Was this girl really such a saint that she wouldn't even be mad at a demon that did something that was despised beyond belief in her society? This was intriguing indeed…

"You are like an animal…" Orihime whispered. Bezanthume tilted his head. Did she mean that as an insult? Somehow it didn't seem like it. "You are not either good or bad and do not judge your actions by our standards…" Orihime continued, with her voice just as meek and low in volume. So, that's how she explains it. She was more perceptive than he had given her merit for…

"**I cannot figure you out, Princess. It is true that I do not judge my actions by your culture's standards or laws, but you do. And that is usually enough for people to be burned at the stake." **Bezanthume stepped down on the floor platform and opened the door with an electronic lock. The sparks flying off it when he opened the door suggested that it had been locked before Bezanthume touched it.

"**And if you call me an animal again, I am going to rip your head off." **Bezanthume kept the door open for her and motioned for her to go through. He watched Inoue Orihime reflexively raise her hand up on her neck. She walked through the door without saying a word to him. If she actually believed that he would rip her head off just for that, she practically just called him a beast once again. Maybe a finger, but the head was just going overboard. He would have to be seriously pissed off at someone to go that far. The heart was so much easier and if he did it right he could show it to that certain someone before they died.

"**You should go down into the lobby, sit down somewhere out of the way and then wait for Kurosaki Ichigo to show up. Then wait for five minutes or so before following him. I'll have to go check that they're not killing Kurosaki Yuzu right now. Don't worry, I'm not hungry." **Bezanthume slammed the door shut and activated the electronic lock again, fully aware that he was leaving her confused and disoriented in the tenth floor of the hospital. He trusted that she would be able to get to an elevator without being tackled by the guards or something like that. Hanging around her all the time was tiresome.

Kurosaki Yuzu… Bezanthume had his senses and powers working at 100 again and now it was easy to single out Kurosaki Yuzu from the other minds radiating their light in the hospital. He noted gratefully that her mind was just as pure as before. He hadn't tainted her; that was a relief. Bezanthume didn't bother to turn off his extra sense and simply walked over to Yuzu's pure light while staying intangible.

He walked right next to her light and then adjusted his eyes back to normal light. He was looking down on her lying on a hospital bed. She was either sleeping or unconscious, but the oxygen mask hinted to something more serious. What did these doctors do to her? If they would have just given her the freaking blood transfusion, she would already be walking around. Bezanthume turned his eyes on the devices and needles hooked into her

Those bleeping devices probably only monitor her life signs, so what exactly are they feeding into her body? Of course there is that mask on her face. I can't imagine it being anything else than an apparatus to help her breath, but what about that needle going into her arm? What's in it?

Why am I even thinking about this? There's a doctor in the room, I can just dig the information out of his mind. Bezanthume walked over to Kurosaki Isshin and stopped right in front of him. He was leaning on the wall, but looked like he was ready to spring into action if his daughter moved even slightly. He looked tired. That is understandable with the idiotically strong relationships humans struggle to hold. In their society it's actually admirable to put someone else's life ahead of your own. That's just idiotic. No life is more precious than the other; they're all just as cheap or precious.

Bezanthume shook his thoughts out of their philosophical sidetrack and leaned in closer to Kurosaki Isshin. He went through the ways he could get the information he wanted and concluded that it would be easiest just to lunge through his head. He turned his whole body completely intangible and then crouched over so that his head was in the same level with him. He lunged forward and felt how the memories and thoughts inside Kurosaki Ishin's mind passed straight through him. He never had figured out the mechanics behind it, but had learned how to use it to his advantage. Now he just had to concentrate on finding the memories concerning modern medicine before they were flushed out along with the other random crap. He was not going to keep the memories and thoughts of someone else inside him.

They did think it was internal bleeding after all. Those idiots! There should be bruises on some part of her body to indicate trauma that caused it. Kurosaki Isshin would have seen the symptoms if it was some disease and the fact that she was attacked –

Bezanthume shook Kurosaki Isshin's thoughts out of his head and walked over to the side of Yuzu's bed. The doctors in here were idiots. Bezanthume reached his hand to the IV going into her arm and started muttering words in a language as old as time itself. The machines connected to Kurosaki Yuzu started bleeping irregularly and their screens went blank. Bezanthume couldn't stop the spell midway without gruesome consequences, so he had no other choice but to stay standing there and read the rest of the spell as fast as he could as red lines ran across the black screens. He still kept on reading the rest of the spell, but turned his eyes to the haywire machinery with great interest. The red lines had started to twist into waves flowing across the screen.

The lights started to flutter and there was sounds of running outside. Was all this caused by a simple spell? The whole hospital was thrown into chaos by a single spell, pathetic. Bezanthume looked down to Kurosaki Yuzu and the fact that she wasn't convulsing or something made Bezanthume assume that the spell only affected the sensitive equipment in the hospital.

Bezanthume hurried to finish the spell and he was just able to spit out the last word before Kurosaki Isshin would have collided with him. The clear liquid in the IV started to darken into a deep shade of red. What would Kurosaki Isshin, a trained doctor, do if he were to notice that the IV had mysteriously turned to a completely different color? He would probably stop the mystery liquid from going into his daughter. If he did that Kurosaki Yuzu wouldn't get the blood transfusion she needed.

The machines were still malfunctioning, so Bezanthume said a couple more words and the liquid in the IV turned clear again, a simple illusion to fool the ones that looked at it. Anyone who can't see demons will be fooled and the only ones he knew that could do that were Kuchiki Rukia, Inoue Orihime and anyone who was especially gifted in kido. He couldn't really imagine anyone like that walking in this room in the next three hours or so. Well, Inoue Orihime could, but he could warn her about mentioning it.

Bezanthume turned around and was about to walk out, but he almost collided with another twelve year old kid. Kurosaki Karin, she really would not like it if she knew that I was here. Where was she anyways just now? She was the one that called Kurosaki Ichigo. Now that he thought about it… Shouldn't she be at school, like her brother? This was interesting; maybe a little mind probing was in order.

Bezanthume didn't have the motivation to do the same thing he did with Kurosaki Isshin. He kneeled down to her level and thrust his hand through her head. It was fortunate that he remembered to turn it intangible in the last second. He really didn't want any more trouble with the Kurosaki family. The girl stayed still, partly from the shock of everything going haywire around her and partly to stay out of her father's way when he checked over Kurosaki Yuzu. Bezanthume started to move his hand around to find the memories of the time just a couple of hours in the past.

Oh, interesting. She had a bad feeling and just had to go home. So, there was some truth about telepathy between twins, seemingly even fraternal ones. When she got home she was in time to ride in the ambulance with her father. It's surprising that she didn't cry. She's tough, I admire that.

Bezanthume pulled out his arm and then phased through the floor until he was in the ground floor. He walked over to Inoue Orihime and sat down on the chair next to her. It was a tight fit and it gave him an unpleasant memory of his time in the orb, but he was tired of standing next to Inoue Orihime. He was still practically towering over her, but at least one part of their bodies was in the same level.

"**If they don't completely fuck it up Kurosaki Yuzu is going to make a complete recovery." **Bezanthume simply stated. He didn't feel that it was necessary for her to know that he probably caused dozens of other people go to the brink of death with his spell. Inoue Orihime didn't answer him. There was no actual need for an answer, but it seemed like her to at least say something. Bezanthume turned to her and saw that she had her eyes downcast and her hands were neatly on her lap. Bezanthume had to wonder if he had broken her at some point.

"**Are you sure you want to do this? You are not as close to Kurosaki Ichigo as you were when you were trapped in Hueco Mundo. Actually, he thinks of you as just a classmate right now, so it would only seem weird for you to show up at the hospital when his sister was just attacked. It would be more logical to let thinks play out as they did in the first time around and intervene only when necessary." **Bezanthume watched Inoue Orihime in confusion. No reaction at all. How could he have possibly broken her and when? He decided to try what worked with Kurosaki Ichigo. He nudged her head with his knuckle. He couldn't use the tip of his finger like Kurosaki Ichigo because of his claws. He didn't want to hospitalize Inoue Orihime. It would be extremely bothersome.

His knuckle made contact and her head nudged. Inoue Orihime turned her head to him. Well, that was a reaction, but the look of her eyes was a little… dead. Well, at least she was not in any condition to interact with Kurosaki Ichigo, so he could just leave.

"**I'm going to fly us out of here, okay?" **Bezanthume said and got up. There was no answer, aside from the creepy blank stare. He should find out how he broke her and fix her if he could. It's no fun to serve a brain dead air-head. Bezanthume grabbed her and then launched off through the ceiling before someone started to wonder about the busty levitating girl in the lobby of a hospital. To avoid any further bothersome attention he turned both of them intangible. And there was the fact that Inoue Orihime would have been crushed to death if he hadn't.

Even the shock of flying through a hospital didn't cause her to stir. Okay, this was officially beyond the realm of apathy or depression; this would have to be called brain damage. Bezanthume was somehow sure that he was the cause of this. There hadn't been any other possible new variables that could have caused this. As far as he could understand this did not happen on the first time around.

Bezanthume flew in circles around the city while he tried to figure out what had he done that could have caused this. He had brought her back in time, but there had not been any problems with that before. But if this was some sort of exception to the rule he could probably figure out how to reverse it. So, he brought her back in time and now her memories of the future were melting away to avoid a paradox, or was it because of his meddling with the past she knew? Did the memories melt away because there will never be a future like that?

Well, in any case it had something to do with time and he was intimately familiar with the inner workings of time. He knew about what you could do and what you couldn't with the power to bend time. Bezanthume circled down and then set his course for Inoue Orihime's apartment. It would be better to get her out of sight and figure out what to do then. He flew in through the roof and landed on the coffee table, or a kotatsu, or whatever they call these things around here. He heard it creak under his weight and quickly stepped off of it. Bezanthume set Inoue Orihime to lie on the floor, "set" being "drop" to be exact. He wasn't the one to make a point of being chivalrous. He set himself down next to Inoue Orihime.

So, what could be wrong with the little princess? Well, quite a number of things actually: She was human, so her perception of time was limited and it could just be that her brain didn't accept the reality of living a day all over again… But Bezanthume had noted that Inoue Orihime's outlook on common everyday things was something extraordinary, so she shouldn't have any trouble accepting the reality of time travel.

There could also be the fact that her present physical body was replaced by her future body from Hueco Mundo. The Arrancar dress lying on the bathroom floor was proof of that. He was forced to replace Inoue Orihime's past self with her future self to keep her powers and memories intact. Maybe he just screwed the matter substitution and now there was something from her old body messing with her neural pathways? Why was magic always so bothersome? There was always something that went wrong and had to be corrected, it was truly bothersome.

"**Damn, this is really not going according to plan…" **Bezanthume mumbled and lay on his back on the floor. He was careful not to crush Inoue Orihime when settling down. What could he need for the correcting spell? There was always something like a charm in these kinds of spells. To complete a spell that had already been cast you needed something to bind the correcting spell to. What could he use, maybe a ring or some other piece of jewelry? It would have to be something that was in continuous contact with her body and something that wouldn't cause suspicion if she kept it on constantly…

What about a tattoo? It was not like she could just take that off. He could put the spell on the ink and then engrave it beneath her skin…

Nah, she's going be in battle soon, so the tattoo could be sliced off along with her skin. A piece of jewelry still seemed like the best possible option and ring seemed like the best possible candidate. It would be in continuous contact with her skin when worn and he could engrave the runes of the spell on the inside of the ring where it would not cause suspicion. Now he would just have to find a ring, read the spell all over again and then engrave the key words on the ring through the process of trial and error… It was going to take hours.

Why did it have to be so bothersome? Bezanthume sighed deeply and got up. There was no point in delaying it. First he would have to find a ring to cast the spell on. Where could he get something like that? It would be better if it was a silver ring than a golden one. Silver had several properties that were more suitable for spell casting.

Bezanthume spread his wings again and then launched off through the roof. Would the jewelers be in the center of town or at the edge of it? He decided to try the centre of town first. It just seemed to make sense from the things he had seen from above so far. He reached the height were the air around him felt thin. He folded his wings on his back and then let himself fall towards the ground.

This usually got his heart beating. He knew that it wasn't the speed, or the fear of death, since he could reach greater speeds with his wings and the fall definitely wouldn't kill him. The air was whizzing past his ears and the wings folded on his back caused him to spin uncontrollably at times. Maybe it was the lack of any control that got his heart beating, the act of throwing away all control and just letting go.

That was ridiculous. Even now he had the means to stop his fall in seconds and the fall itself was something he could shrug off. He had total control. He could bend and rip the fabric of space and time around him and engulf this whole pitiful town in flames that reached up towards the skies! He could reduce this whole town to ashes and ruins in the matter of minutes! He could…

Except that he couldn't. Bezanthume spread his wings again and straightened his freefall into a controlled dive towards the ground. He was not sure if he was relieved or not by the fact that his destructive thoughts had been wiped away so easily. He had had a fire burning inside him for a second that almost made him feel alive.

He flew down to street level and started to look for the shop of a jeweler. His wings seared through a couple of street lamps before he noticed and adjusted his trajectory a little. It became painfully clear to him that he couldn't read Japanese. Well, he would just have to look for a window with small sparkly things on display and hope it was jewelry shop. He didn't actually need a genuine jeweler, he only needed a ring and if he found one somewhere else he would be more than happy. He landed on a car when he saw a window with barred windows and small shiny things on display. It did look like a jewelry shop. He jumped out of the remnants of the car he landed on and made his way through the gathering crowd. He didn't care that he knocked over several people on his way to the window.

He reached the window and tore the steel bars out of the wall. He was completely tired of tiptoeing around these lowly humans! He was a part of an immortal race and lower races should bow down to him in fear. He was not meant to serve anyone, but still he was bound to a worthless airheaded girl of a human! Bezanthume knew that cursing his fate would not get him anywhere, but couldn't resist letting his anger take control of his actions for just a fleeting second.

He gathered fire on his palm and then used it to melt a hole into the safety glass and then tore the opening wider with his bare hands. He knew of easier ways of doing it, but he was not prohibited to take his anger out on humans, so inanimate objects would have to do. The glass gave him little challenge and he crunched it up to a ball and then threw it over his shoulder. He enjoyed the sound it made when it crashed 

into the building across the street. People were running and screaming around him and some were actually recording him, or actually they were recording the window of a jewelry shop being demolished by something they couldn't see, but still… It was an outrage!

"**You dare to try and trap my picture with your technology!" **Bezanthume growled out. The ground around him shook from the sheer force behind his voice, his anger. He was almost beyond all reason and knew that he should calm down before he was forced to turn back time, but still he charged the tips of his wings with kinetic energy and launched it towards the guy with the video camera with one flex of his wings. The guy and everything around him would crash through the wall behind them and what was left of them would go through at least three more before being splattered on the fourth obstacle.

The wave of kinetic energy burst the street open when it made its way to its intended victim. A sadistic smile spread on his face and a slow growl escaped his mouth, almost like a purr of a large cat, but just ten times more threatening. It felt good to let loose once in a while. This was is what he –

A sudden surge of intense pain erupted right behind both of his eyes. It felt like white-hot needles were slowly making their way out. The whole of his physical form shuddered and was slowly forced back into the swirling red and black mists. The transformation from the mist and into a physical body gave him a hell of headache, but the shift back into the mist felt like he was shredded from the inside out by white-hot knives.

"**GRRHAAGHH…" **His scream faded out when his whole body was completely turned into the gathering of swirling mists. His sensation of pain could only be seen by the mists inability to take a definite shape. It exploded out and engulfed the whole street in its self, consuming the rampant kinetic energy in the process and letting the guy who was recording the incident off with a scare, and a broken camera.

The swirling mists gathered inside the jewelry shop and systematically passed over every jewel in the shop. The shopkeeper was shocked to see his merchandise shake and float in mid-air under the glass counter. He was really not having a good day. Suddenly all the glass shattered and a selection of silver rings shot up and whirled around in the air before shooting out through the demolished storefront.

The cloud of black and red mists flew over Karakura town, until gathering over a completely normal looking apartment building and then swirling down through one window in a steady stream. If someone would be able to see it they would probably say that it looked like a miniature tornado trying to force its way into the apartment on the second floor.

The gathering mists intensified into something that looked like thick multi-colored smoke rather than something as faint as mist and then engulfed the girl sprawled out on the floor. One of the silver rings rose out from the thick smoke held up by an intensified tendril of black smoke. A intensified tendril of the bright red smoke rose up as well and placed its sharp tip on the inside of the ring. A sound resembling a high-pitched hum emanated from the small cloud of red and black smoke covering the comatosed girl and the red tendril scribbled complicated runes with incredible speed.

The high-pitched humming stopped and the ring dropped into the cloud of smoke engulfing the young girl. After a couple of seconds the thick smoke floated off of Inoue Orihime and gathered into a outline of a tall man in a hooded overcoat. The swirling colors seemed shift slightly before intensifying into a tall man in a black hooded overcoat.

"**And I thought I had a headache before…" **Bezanthume rumbled and his body crashed down on all fours. His brain felt like it was trying to break out of his skull. He felt like he was going to be sick, but couldn't move on the behalf of the room spinning uncontrollably. Why was it so dark in here? And why were these clouds blocking my vision?

"**Ah, fuck…" **Bezanthume was able to say when he realized that it was his consciousness escaping that was causing the room to be engulfed by hazy shadows. He didn't feel the impact of his body falling limp on the floor. He was engulfed by impenetrable darkness and oblivion.

* * *

**Thanks to anyone who read this, you know who you are on the count that I actually thanked the people that left a review or put up a story alert personally. I don't have the energy to write your names in here. It's about 2 AM right now and I got school tomorrow... If you have any questions or requests leave a review, I'll be sure to reply abck as soon as possible. I'm open to suggestions about things like pairings, painful deaths and such...**


	4. Lilith

**Sorry for this taking so long, but as you will see this chapter is hella long (seemed like the right word to describe it) and thus it took long to write. I always have a hard time to find a place to stop writing without it seeming like the story had been cut like a ham or something (I suck at metaphors, sorry...) If you can believe me, this is not even the longest chapter I have written, not even the second longest.**

**Yeah, sorry about the inconvenience again and I hope your not too disappointed with this. Flame me if you want. I'll be glad to read any critque (did I spell that right? Oh well...)**

**Chapter Four**

**Lilith**

Bezanthume saw a field void of all life. There were no other things alive as far as he could see from his point of view. He was lying on the ground and leaning casually on a scorched husk of a tree. His body felt heavy and feverish, just like it always did after he used his fire too much. It would pass in an hour or so, but it still made his body feel tired and forcibly caused it to relax a bit. It did seem like he had been the one to reduce a field full of life to a barren wasteland, so he probably did deserve a breather.

His head turned left to right and he surveyed the smoldering ashes spanning out as far as he could see. He felt how a feeling of joy and excitement rushed through his body, but his mind started to wonder how he got here in the first place. Wasn't he just at Inoue Orihime's apartment?

Bezanthume tried to raise his hand to draw the required symbols to cast a spell that would tell him if he was under the effect of any spells, but found that he couldn't get his hand to move from its place behind his head. He noticed in surprise that he had his hands behind his head in a relaxed manner. He tried to make any part of his body move, but found that it was in vain. He was not in control of his own body anymore. His body still felt heavy and utterly relaxed. His world descended into darkness as his body closed its eyes.

His body opened its eyes and he felt his head turn to the left. His eyes blinked a couple of times and then they were able to make out a glimmer of blue light in the horizon. He felt how his body reacted to seeing this light with a mixture of anticipation and forced indifference. For some reason Bezanthume thought that it was what human teenager males felt like while interacting with beautiful women. Was this really his body? Maybe this was some weird possession gone wrong and he was trapped in some horny human teenager's greasy body.

He felt how the body's muscles flexed and it shot up from leaning on the scorched husk of a tree. The wings on his back ruffled their feathers as a sign of his nervousness and let out a surge of energy that blew the tree to thousands of pieces. Yeah, it was definitely his body, but how did he get here and who the hell was controlling it? Who the hell would even have enough power to possess a demon? It was practically impossible, even for another demon.

The blue light came closer and closer and Bezanthume felt how the ground under his feet started to shake slightly. The vibrations told him that there should have been a huge rumble resonating in the air, but Bezanthume could hear nothing. Now that he thought about it, he had been unable to hear anything at all after that time in Inoue Orihime's apartment. The surrounding was a scorched wasteland, but he still should have at least heard the scorched tree blow to bits, but he didn't.

A blue orb of light flew over his head the speed of a modern fighter jet and Bezanthume turned around to watch its flight. The orb descended in a wide circular pattern and its speed decreased dramatically with every lap. As the speed of the orb of blue light decreased, so did the light emanating from it and eventually Bezanthume's eyes started to make out a winged form amidst the pure blue light. The light from the orb dissipated completely when the winged figure passed directly over Bezanthume's head after making one last slow circular lap it landed right in front of Bezanthume, just a couple of feet away from him.

If Bezanthume was more or less a characterized image of a demon, then the person standing in front of him right now was a characterized image of an angel. She had long golden hair flowing down her back and she was wearing pure white robes that looked like they shone their own light. Bezanthume felt how his heart rate started raising rapidly and how it started to feel like something was pressing down on his chest.

The female angel's wings were very much like Bezanthume's and were only different in color layout. Where Bezanthume's wings were an impenetrable black color, her wings were that of purest white and where Bezanthume had lines of fiery-red feathers, she had lines of feathers blue as the sky. And just like Bezanthume, the color of the lines on her wings was the same as the color of her eyes and Bezanthume didn't seem to get his eyes off of her luminescent blue eyes. Somehow it was hard for him to make out any fine details about her face. It was like his sight was obstructed by some spell meant to alter his perception.

His attention turned to her full cherry red lips and he saw them move. She was speaking, but Bezanthume still couldn't hear anything. He said something back and whatever he had said made her smile. He felt how his heart skipped a beat. Seriously, there isn't a strong enough spell in existence to cause a demon's view to be warped like this. He might have been just a passive observer in his own body, but this was really getting disturbing.

His arm reached out towards her face. Bezanthume had a brief glimmer of hope to cling on to, as it seemed like he was going to rip her face off. He started cursing his own body when his hand only ended up cupping her cheek. This was absolutely crazy! His heart was beating so fast it was about to burst, he was sweating profoundly, his breathing was ragged and he was definitely not ripping the wings off of this freaking angel! And what was the cause of all this? One woman with sparkly clothes and wings! This was not him!

The woman's significantly smaller hands wrapped around his wrist and she leaned her face leaned on his palm. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth, letting out a soft moan. Her grip on his hand tightened and she planted a faint kiss on his wrist. His heart was bordering on exploding and he thought that he felt a pop when she opened her eyes and glanced up to his eyes while slowly moving her tongue across the spot she kissed. Then she planted her lips back on it and he could feel her teeth sink in through his skin and his blood shoot out into her mouth and down her throat.

"_Bezanthume, are you alright?"_

"**GAAAH!!" **Bezanthume screamed when he was shot back into reality. What the hell was that all about? He got up to a sitting position and his eyes shot around frantically and he was greatly relieved to see the claustrophobic confines of Inoue Orihime's apartment. It didn't seem like he had left the place to begin with. His eyes eventually came upon an extremely shocked looking Inoue Orihime. She was grabbing her chest and breathing rapidly. He had seemingly scared her, Big Deal.

"**How long was I out?" **Bezanthume asked in a purposely harsh tone. He really was in no mood for any bullshit just now. He had no idea what just happened to him and he felt light-headed for some reason.

"Oh! Well… uhm… you were like that, sleeping that is… when I myself woke up, so I just thought that I shouldn't… wake you, but then it looked like you were having a bad dream and I –"

**Wait a minute! How long was I out?" **Bezanthume got up to his feet and towered over Inoue Orihime. He enjoyed watching her scared face and loved the smell of the pheromones she was letting out, but he really 

didn't feel like smirking right then and there. Was he out for hours? He usually was out for about ten minutes and then woke up with a hell of a headache, but he never was out for hours. It would be inconvenient if he would be immobilized in the heat of battle for too long. He couldn't be killed by mortal weapons, but the spells that could trap him lasted longer to cast than ten minutes or so and it was usually like so that he was fighting against everyone else and they were trying to find a way to kill him.

"Well, uhm… You had done so much, so I just thought that it would be nice to let you sleep it off…" Her words faded out under the weight of Bezanthume's gaze that was filled with an inhumanly strong aura of hate. Only emotions he had shown in front of Inoue Orihime were either amusement or hate. He was fine with that; he really didn't wish for her to start thinking of him as an equal, it would be too bothersome. She could just keep on thinking of him as an immoral beast for all he cared.

"**How long was I out?" **Bezanthume asked with his voice dripping with murderous intent. He would not kill her, but she didn't know that. Inoue Orihime opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. She was practically reeking of fear and that caused a low growl escape Bezanthume's throat. This didn't help Inoue Orihime get over her fear at all. Her knees buckled and she slid down the wall. She was sweating profoundly and Bezanthume could hear how her heart beat against her chest. Maybe he was taking this a little too far. Seriously, humans were so _weak_!

"**Oh, don't bother! I'll just dig it up from your mind when I have time… Wait, did you say I was having a dream?" **Bezanthume said with his voice returning back to normal and giving Inoue Orihime a chance to gather her thoughts. He had succeeded in scattering her thoughts and almost bending her mind to its breaking point by simply by staring at her… Bezanthume had to wonder about the unbelievable frailty of the human mind.

"Yes, it seemed like you were having a nightmare. You were speaking in your sleep and –" Inoue Orihime said. If Bezanthume would have been drinking something right then he would have definitely choked on the beverage, Inoue Orihime seemed to perfectly fine. Talk about recovery…

"**I do not dream, demons do not dream." **Bezanthume said, but then stopped to wonder if this was another exception to another rule. His contract with Inoue Orihime was more than extraordinary, more or less by the fact that she seemed to be completely unaware about the whole thing. He glanced over to Inoue Orihime. Maybe he was bound to her in more ways than one…

"You don't? Your nights have to be boring then… I couldn't live without my dreams. Once I had a dream about a stuffed turkey and roasted pork chasing me through a field…" Inoue Orihime babbled on and Bezanthume tuned her out while concentrating on more important matters. He remembered that he had made copies of the ring he had put on Inoue Orihime, just in case if it were to break and would have to be replaced. He could read the enchantment there and get some answers to some important questions that were burning in his mind.

He stepped over to the collection of six rings on the floor and picked them up using his claws. He opened his overcoat and dropped five of the rings inside, but kept the last one hanging from the claw on his index finger while checking what symbols were written on the inside of the ring. Just like any other magical engraving it was incomprehensible to anyone other than the one who cast it and it took him a while to adjust his eyes to see behind his own concealing script. Then it took him another good while to believe what he saw.

**Orihime**

"Are you listening to me?" Orihime asked when she finally noticed that Bezanthume wasn't paying any attention. She noticed that he was standing in the middle of the room with a silver ring of unknown origin dangling from one of his claws. He was turning it around with another one of his claws and seemed to be reading something engraved on it.

"**No…" **Bezanthume said in a low voice and the ring dropped to the floor. His hands were visibly shaking. **"No… This can't be…" **Bezanthume mumbled in a low voice. Inoue Orihime followed her own instincts and rushed over to him. She looked up to his eyes and saw them fluttering like they had done back in Las Noches and also when he was extremely hungry. She had concluded that it was not a good sign and decided to try and bring him out of the stupor he was in.

"Hey, Bezanthume, are you alright?" She said and nudged him a little. Bezanthume's eyes stopped fluttering and concentrated on her steel gray eyes. They were a little dimmer than usual and his arms had gone limp on his sides. His claws were uncomfortably close to her neck and she took a reflexive step back. Bezanthume's eyes suddenly started to burn bright red and his hands shot out towards her neck. He wrapped both of his arms around her neck, slammed her against the wall and raised her up to level with his eyes frighteningly easily.

"**How did you know?" **Bezanthume said with his voice as a monstrous rumble. Orihime realized that she had never seen Bezanthume angry, really angry that is. The other times she had been able to feel something like inhumanly strong feeling of anger was when he had been just slightly annoyed, but now when he was filled to the brink with rage it knocked the wind right out of her lungs and made her whole body go limp. She was going to pass out soon; she could already see black spots dancing in her eyes.

"**NO! You're staying with me now! Tell me how you knew or I will slaughter everyone you know and love!" **The volume ofBezanthume's rumbling voice made Orihime's head hurt and it was harder and harder to fight against the invading darkness, but there was no doubt in her mind that Bezanthume could and would do the things he said and she forced her eyes to stay open and directed at him.

"I… I don't… know what you're talking about…" Orihime was able to croak out with Bezanthume's hands wrapped around her neck and with the weight of his inhuman rage smothering her. She heard a low growl escape his mouth as he moved his head closer to hers. The feeling of overpowering rage intensified.

"**Do not lie to me, you bitch! There's no way that something like this could happen by accident! Who told you about the ritual? Tell me!" **Bezanthume leaned in closer** "Their deaths will be slow and I'll make damn sure that they curse your name on their last breath…" **Bezanthume whispered in her ear. She could feel his frenzied breath on her neck and the light from his eyes burning her cheek. He must have noticed that he was strangling her, since it felt like the grip of his hands loosened a little and Orihime was able to breathe to some extent.

"I'm sorry…" Orihime said. She wasn't sure if she was apologizing to Bezanthume for not knowing the answer or to her friends for their slow deaths. Tears welled up in her eyes and Bezanthume's glowing red eyes looked even more inhuman through her distorted view of the world. Bezanthume let out a roar that shook her to the very bone and then threw her on the wall on the opposite side of the room like a piece of trash. She heard a soft crack coming from her side on impact. She felt immense pain radiating from her right side and tasted blood in her mouth. Bezanthume kept on raging like a mindless beast and his hands 

were engulfed by fire. He trashed around and drove his hands through walls and ceiling of her apartment, either by accident or because he just felt like he had to hit something. His hands seared straight through her walls, but still didn't cause a fire. He suddenly turned towards her and his eyes got even brighter. He growled a series of incomprehensible words and Orihime felt how her most private thoughts and memories were suddenly violated.

She had been aware that Bezanthume was able to hear her thoughts, but now he was rummaging through her mind forcefully and intentionally. Every single embarrassing or painful memory and thought was pulled out and she was forced to relive them as Bezanthume searched for something that wasn't there. She could hear the mocking voices of her classmates while they forcefully cut her hair short. She could feel her brother's blood on her all over again. She could –

The invading memories were suddenly pushed back into her subconscious and the overpowering atmosphere of hate lessened. Orihime opened her eyes and saw Bezanthume squatting over her with his hands between his legs. His claws were too close for comfort, but when she tried to move away a shockwave of pain radiated from her side. She had probably broken a rib or two; internal bleeding or damaged organs were not out of the realm of possibility either. She looked up to Bezanthume's eyes. Perhaps she was trying to find a reason for all of this, or she was waiting for him to help her. When she saw the burning hatred radiating from his eyes her hope was crushed completely.

His eyes were blazing in a darker shade of red and radiated pure hatred. Even though the feeling of immense hate in his eyes was scary and unsettling in itself it was not the thing that scared Orihime the most about him right now. There was something different about the hatred flowing from his eyes now, instead of being the uncontrollable surge of rampart emotions it had been a second ago there was something coldly logical and cruel behind the light of his eyes. If Orihime had been afraid for her life before, then now she was also scared for her soul and sanity. What was looking down to her now was something that would gouge out your eyes, twist your arms out of their sockets and then rip you apart piece by piece keeping you alive and conscious the while time, then it would heal you and do it all over again.

"**Stop that." **Bezanthume's inhuman voice rumbled and he nudged her with his hand. Pain radiated from her injured side and she yelped from the pain. She became aware of her own sobbing and the tears running from her eyes and the snot running out from her nose. Not the most photographic scene possible, but she was scared out of her mind and it was a miracle she hadn't wet herself. Bezanthume nudged her again and she winced from the pain, but…

It felt like it didn't hurt as much now that it did the first time. She became aware of a constant itch on her injured side and a sense of throbbing, but the pain was definitely gradually fading now that she paid attention to it. What the hell was going on? Was Bezanthume healing her?

**Bezanthume**

Shit, so it was true… She's actually healing from an injury that severe in a matter of minutes. This was not good, not good at all. And to top it all off it did look like the princess was unaware of what she had done. He had not found anything suggesting that she had knowingly forged a contract like _that. _He had known of the 

circumstances that led to it for quite a while, but his mind just had refused to piece it together. He nudged Inoue Orihime's side again and this time her facial expression only changed slightly. She looked astonished by her recovery rate and afraid of his facial expression. He knew that the anger was still in his system and he would have to be careful not to blow up the whole town.

Out of the emotions demons were able to feel anger was the one most closely tied to the control of their powers. If a demon was not able to control their anger after it reached a certain point then they would lose their minds all together and disperse into the space around them as raw energy and pure elemental power. The more demons felt the bigger the chance for their deaths. That was exactly why there were so little demons left, immortal as they were, but if a race does not breed it is bound for extinction.

Bezanthume got up and sighed deeply. Inoue Orihime heard it as a growl, but he actually couldn't care less. He started walking towards the window with the intention of going out and spread his wings a little. He was curious about what this "France" was like. He had picked up some mental images of the place when he was searching for the silver rings. And the fact that then there would be a whole continent between him and Inoue Orihime did sound appealing.

"Wait!" Inoue Orihime screamed and stumbled towards him. Bezanthume stopped and turned his eyes towards her fully aware of the mental images it caused in her mind. He noted that her left leg seemed to be in a weird angle and she tried to avoid putting any weight on it. Was it just a sprained ankle or a broken bone?

"Please don't hurt my friends!" Inoue Orihime sobbed and clung on his coat. The buildup of mental trauma from her stay in Las Noches, Bezanthume's manipulative taunting and his current actions were just too much for her to stand anymore. Bezanthume noted this fact and then continued to examine her leg. Her ankle was not in an abnormal angle, it was her whole foot. He pushed Inoue Orihime down and then he had to stop her from curling up into a ball. He did this by slapping her in the face with the back of his hand. It was just pure luck that he didn't break her neck. It was hard for him to control his strength when he was filled with anger.

"Please…" Inoue Orihime mumbled. It was a show of her impressive mental fortitude that she was still even somewhat conscious. Bezanthume knelt down to examine her leg. So, it had been a broken bone after all. If her new regenerative powers were to heal it now she would be a cripple for the rest of her life without corrective surgery, and that was impossibility in itself because of her regenerative rate. Humans were too frail for their own good…

Well, better get to it, Bezanthume thought and placed his left hand on Inoue Orihime's knee. He caught an offensive thought from Inoue Orihime's barely conscious mind and decided not to even try to be delicate about this. He wrapped his right hand around her ankle, pressed down on her knee a little and then pulled and twisted with his right hand until he heard a soft crack when the bone was set back in place. As expected, Inoue Orihime screamed from the pain before passing out.

Bezanthume got back up and was about to fly off when he caught a glimpse of the scene he was just about to leave behind: Inoue Orihime's apartment was practically torn into pieces and Inoue Orihime was lying unconscious in the middle of it all with torn clothes and dried up blood on her, but without a scratch on her. Yeah, that definitely would not cause any suspicion…

Bezanthume sighed again, brought his hand up and snapped his fingers. The space around him twisted and shimmered. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what the small room had looked like before. After a couple of seconds he thought that he had all the details he could remember. Of course he could reverse time in the space of the things he broke, but this was more cost-effective. Messing with the natural order of things took its toll on him and having to go out hunting so soon after he just satisfied his hunger would be tiresome.

He opened his eyes and looked at Inoue Orihime's apartment. He saw no great mistakes with his work. The walls were whole again and there was no sign of the scorch marks. He looked down to Inoue Orihime. Her clothes were still torn and she had dried up blood on the side of her face. He reached down to her body and then raised it by her shoulders. The shirt of her uniform had been torn pretty badly and her bra was showing. He turned her over and checked her top to bottom. There seemed to be no other fractures in her bone structure and fixing her clothes and cleaning up her face seemed to be the only thing for him to worry about. That was easy enough.

He laid his hand down on her chest, concentrated on the fabric of her shirt and then reversed its time until it was in the time where it had been whole. Then he introduced the piece of cloth to its new stream of time and Inoue Orihime was wearing a clean and only slightly wrinkled shirt. Now he just had to clean out the dried up blood on her face and she would be acceptable to random surprise quests that might ask too many questions. He carried her over to her bed and set her on it, actually set her down, he didn't drop her this time. Having her wake up now would more than bothersome. He walked into her bathroom, grabbed a towel and drenched it under the tap. Sure, he could use some nifty magical trick, but it wasn't really needed right now when he could just simply use some good old water to simply wipe off the blood.

He walked back over to Inoue Orihime and slapped the towel on her face. He raised the towel a couple of seconds later and noticed that the water had dissolved some of the dried up blood and it did look like he would be done with just a couple of wipes. He wrapped the towel around his knuckles and then carefully brushed off the blood the best he could. He grabbed her chin and turned her head side to side to see if he had missed a spot anywhere. He nodded in a sign of approval and then dried the towel by engulfing his hand in fire for a split second. He threw the towel back in the general direction of the bathroom and once again turned to leave.

And once again he remembered something just before he was about to leave. He had threatened her with the lives of her friends earlier and she would undoubtedly think that he had gone to kill them if she woke up and he wasn't there. So, he needed to leave a note. He looked around and didn't see anything he could write on, not that he even knew how to write Japanese… Guess there's no going around it: here come the nifty magic tricks. He would have to learn to write Japanese as soon as possible.

Bezanthume spelled out a short string of words and engraved a message in the ceiling above Inoue Orihime. That way it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up and she probably wouldn't freak out that much. The letters were luminescent red symbols that went straight into your mind upon eye contact and thus translated the message into a language you could understand. After they got into your mind they lived a short life watching your life so far to relieve their boredom and then died away. He was sure that Inoue Orihime would be "creeped out" if he told her that and that's why he used this particular spell. Messing with her head just never got old, or it hasn't just yet.

Bezanthume walked to the window and tried to think if there was anything he forgot. He spread his wings when he couldn't think of anything. He jumped through the window and then launched off into the sky engulfed by the light of his wings. He created a shield around his own form that transcended space and matter thus making something like wind resistance obsolete. This way he could fly through the clouds without tearing them apart with the excess kinetic energy from his wings. Right now he didn't want to raise any kind of suspicion.

He flew in a straight line until he arrived at the ocean. He dropped his shield and swooped down to the water, low enough for him to feel the water splatter on his face. He glanced behind his back and saw two huge pillars of water reaching towards the skies. The heat and propulsion from his wings caused the water to vaporize and shoot up into the air. This was one of those tricks that humans were easily impressed by and he had used it before to make his existence known. Even though he was trying the exact opposite he couldn't resist the temptation of having a little fun by passing close to a cruise ship. He could hear the shocked screams of the passengers when the ship tilted to its side and the steel structures wailed and were stressed almost to a breaking point. It wasn't just the massive column of water crashing on the side of the boat with the force of a tidal wave, the pure kinetic energy from his wings also partly presented itself as heat and caused the steel structures of the ship bend under the weight of the water.

He wasn't really sure if he was relieved or disappointed when the ship tilted back after the mass of steaming water passed. If the ship would have been broken apart and everyone in it would have been exposed to the boiling hot water within the column of water he would have been one happy demon, true to his nature. But on the other hand he would be forced to turn back time as soon as Inoue Orihime found out about this and he would have to go and bite people again.

He didn't stay there to ponder about what ifs any longer. He turned his face towards to where he thought this "France" was and rose above the clouds. He stayed right at the edge between the heavens and the clouds to minimize the chance of colliding with an airplane. His matter subsiding field would transfer anything in front of him back for about ten feet and would be destructive if he was to go through something carefully constructed like an airplane. The airplane would stir the clouds before rising above them he would have more than enough time to adjust his flight.

He didn't have to worry about things like this before. There might have been a few flocks of birds below the clouds, but the sky above the clouds used to be his domain, a place where he could go and know that there were no inferior beings to bother him. Not a single offending thought invading his senses. He flew for about half an hour before descending below the clouds again to see how long it would take him to see France.

What exactly was drawing him there anyway? He had picked up mental images about France, but it had not been anything that especially appealed to him. All of the mental images had been too bright, happy and romantic. Ugh, "romantic"… one of his least favorite words that humans had made up. Acting like something not one human can be to gain something very basic and animalistic in nature. It was simply ludicrous just as a concept in itself.

Bezanthume flexed his wings and then started flapping his wings slowly back and forth to hover in place. There really was something drawing him to "France", something or someone. Could it have something to do with the "dream" he had? Was the woman with white wings calling him? More and more questions popped up in Bezanthume's mind as he hovered there above the clouds. Why would she be in France? How 

was she calling him? And if she was not calling him, then why did he think that she would be in France? Who was this woman?

"**Lilith…" **Bezanthume mumbled. He thought that was her name. He had a feeling that he remembered something, but when he tried to reach the memory again it slipped away completely. Well, he had lived a long life and spent the last couple of millenniums trapped in an orb, so a little amnesia was understandable. He decided to shrug it off for now, since he couldn't actually do anything about it. His memory would come back in time, if given enough time, anything was possible.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on his extra sense. After a couple of seconds to cool his nerves Bezanthume started to make out faint lights of sentient minds. Most of the lights of the human race were dull and not too bright. They were small, intense and extremely pure when they were born, but life had the tendency to dim out the purity out of their minds and souls. The thing that fed his powers the best was just that untainted pure light of their soul within their bodies. The state of their bodies had nothing to do with it, but if someone was raped, beaten and tortured, then their light usually did dim, flutter or just simply die out. Innocence was what he was looking for, as that state produced the brightest and purest light. With enough practice and intimate knowing of someone's mind he could track anyone with this ability of his. Right now he was trying to tune his senses to detect the light of the woman in white from his "dream". If this woman existed, then she would have to come to him, not the other way around, but first he had to know if she even existed in the first place.

After a couple of minutes of trying he was already ready to give up. Every other light had faded away and all he saw was impenetrable darkness, no bright blue light in sight. There would be no delay if the light would have been there. Well, she might not be in France like he thought, so he shouldn't give up yet. He turned his head slowly to the side and made a complete circle by slightly adjusting the angle of his wings, still no blue lights.

Bezanthume sighed and leaned his head back. Guess it was just a dream after all. His first honest to god dream and he was affected this much. He happened to keep his eyes closed and his extra sense active. He noticed a glimmer of light in the corner of his field of vision. Bezanthume turned his head towards it and memorized the location. He opened his eyes and allowed his eyes to adjust to normal light again. She is above me, well, that was surprising. This hood obstructs my vision…

Bezanthume concentrated energy on the tips of his wings and then flexed them downwards forcefully. He was shot up towards the skies and felt the air get thin around him again. That would not bother him that much if he didn't stay up here too long. There were spells he could use that would nullify the ill effects completely, but there was no actual need to use them. He saw no reason that he would be here longer than a few minutes. He flew towards the place where the light had been at full speed. If what he saw in his dream was true, then this woman was at least as fast as he was. The light didn't seem to be moving at the time, but he didn't know why it was staying in place in the first place, so it might start moving anytime now.

Bezanthume flew in a straight line and after a moment he realized where exactly he was going. The moon was looming right in front of him in all of its grey and dusty glory. The dead husk of a star had inspired poets and romantic idiots down on earth from the dawn of man, but Bezanthume had always seen it just as what it was: A cold, lifeless rock that leeched its enchanting light from the sun. As a demon he did feel some sort of… comradeship towards it. The moon was weaker in its light than the sun, but it was also the 

only light in that fabled valley of darkness. Thinking about the obvious metaphor here made him feel a strong sense of déjà vu. It didn't feel like he had thought of it himself…

The moon's surface was just a measly kilometer away and Bezanthume turned his flight to run along the surface of the moon while slowing down constantly. He closed his eyes and saw the blue light right after his extra sense activated. It looked like it was somewhere on the surface of the moon below him. Bezanthume stopped in his tracks with a great flash of red light and a shockwave that stirred the dust gathered on the surface of the moon. The light was somewhere below him and it was still not moving, even though he made no attempt to hide himself. What did this mean? Was she sleeping or something? If she was anything like him, then she should have her other senses just as alert as they were when she was awake. Well, angels were pacifist idiots anyway…

Bezanthume shut off the lines of energy on his wings and let the gravitational pull of the moon draw him down slowly. The light was not directly under him, but it seemed like he would land on walking distance to it. Why was it staying still like this? If this light was that female angel he had seen in his "dream", then she should either be charging at him or flying away. And if she was somehow incapacitated, then there should be some change in her light signaling her erratic emotions.

This was getting interesting. Bezanthume felt how his feet made contact with the surface of the moon. He turned his heading towards the light and started walking; well it could be called hopping rather than walking. The low gravitational pull of the moon had its side effects. The sense of lightness was disturbing Bezanthume. He opened his eyes when he was just a couple of steps away from the bright blue light. His eyes adjusted back to normal light and he looked around and noticed that he was standing in one of the many craters on the surface of the moon, but more importantly, he saw no sign of the female angel.

Why was he even trying to find her, to kill her? No, he needed answers, answers about his dream. That was probably it. Well, it was impossible to fool his extra sense, so she had to be here and the only place where she could be out of sight here was under the dust of the moon. Bezanthume spread his wings out on his sides and braced himself for the recoil. He gathered kinetic energy at the tips of his wings and then let it out while flexing his wings in a wide arc. Because of the low gravity on the moon he was blown back either way. Bezanthume turned the tips of his wings to point up and blasted a small charge of energy to get himself back on the ground. The blast of his wings had upset the fine dust lying on the bottom of the crater and now there was a cloud of fine dust floating away. Because of the lack of atmosphere it didn't stay there to swirl and settle down again. The dust was blasted away and then it either floated away into space or landed somewhere else drawn by the weak gravity of this desolate place. He was able to see something white on the bed of the crater. He walked closer to get a better look.

Bezanthume had found the woman from his dream, but he never thought that he would find her in the state she was in now. She was lying at the bottom of the crater with her wings spread out at her sides. She had two silver spears driven through both of her wings. The two spears were at the point where the blue lines of feathers separated to mimic the bones on a bat's wings. Her white wings were stained with the blood that had gushed out from her crippled wings whenever this happened. Bezanthume stood there and checked over her body and couldn't help but notice the reason she was incapacitated. There was a hilt of a blade sticking out from her chest. He somehow froze in place for a second and recorded every detail of the scene before him. And she had been alive all this time…

Bezanthume shook himself out of his thoughts and walked over to the spear that was driven through her left wing. He placed his foot right next to the place where the spear was driven through and placed his hands on the spear. He grabbed the spear tightly and then pulled it out from her wing. The blade of the spear was saw-edged and small chunks of her flesh were ripped along with. He felt the spear get incredibly hot in his hands and he threw it away before it was able to burn through his gloves. Hallowed steel, what the hell?

He stepped over to her other wing and kneeled over to it. To avoid severe burns, he would have to use other means to extract the other spear. These were powerfully enchanted weapons in the past, but the delayed response to his touch implied that the spell had weakened considerably over time, so he should be able to cut them. Still, his claws were exactly what the steel was enchanted to deflect, so he would have to use his wings. The line of feathers running along the top of his wing gathered heat even when he didn't will it and could cut through most metals, they should do.

Bezanthume spread his wing out and then laid the tip against the ground. He concentrated on gathering heat on the edge of the wing and then when he thought it was more than enough he nudged his shoulders and sliced the spear a couple of inches above the wound. The steel was white-hot and melted away like a candle on the point where his wing had cut the spear. Bezanthume waited for the steel to cool down before placing his hands under the wing and carefully lifting it off the spear. He laid the frail looking wing down and stepped over to her body. He looked at the hilt of the blade sticking out of her chest and the dried up blood surrounding it and staining her white clothes. Well, there was no going around it…

He placed his right foot on her chest and reached down to the handle of the sword pierced through her chest. His eyes happened to land on her eyes and his hand stopped right before he was about to grab the sword and pull it out. Sure, he would get burns, but he would heal soon enough. The woman's eyes were open and the translucent blue eyes he remembered from his dream were looking straight at him. He felt something resembling a sandbag being pressed down on his chest for a second, but the severe symptoms of a charming spell were gone. He narrowed his eyes and let a sadistic smile creep up on his face.

"**I'm sure this is going to hurt…" **Bezanthume said and closed his hand on the handle of the blade. He flexed the muscles in his leg and straightened his back and pulled the sword out of her chest. He stepped off of her chest and dropped the sword on the ground next to her head. Bezanthume hissed furiously for the pain of the third degree burns on his right hand and used every single profanity he knew before the pain had lessened enough. Angels were sadistic bastards! And they had way too much time on their hands to make up an enchantment like that and put it on a sword!

Bezanthume turned his eyes to the female angel once again. Why wasn't she moving? He took out all of the things tying her down. Bezanthume kneeled to look into her eyes. Yes, he saw the faint light of life in the back of her eyes, so she should be moving already… That is if her metabolism was as fast at healing as his, or even remotely alike. Maybe she needed an atmosphere to regenerate, or holy water, or hallowed ground… He had no idea what it could be, but there was no way he was going to take her into a church.

Bezanthume slid his hands carefully under her torso and under her knees and picked her up on his arms. She was extremely light, even if you took the low gravitational pull of the moon. She must be built like a bird all around. He remembered how she seemed so at home when she flew in the skies in his dream. She had been smiling. There was the feeling of something heavy pressing down on his chest again, but it subsided in a matter of seconds. What the hell was going on? The spell she put on him back then must have 

been one potent charm for it affect his perception even now. The effect had dulled considerably, but it was still altering his perception and that bothered Bezanthume greatly. Bezanthume wondered if the spell would be broken if she were to die? No, probably not. Angels were good with enchantments and charms; there was probably some kind of booby trap here.

Bezanthume sighed and launched off of the surface of the moon. He engulfed them both in his red light to repel the heat from the friction when they entered earth's atmosphere again. He could handle the heat easily, it would actually be refreshing, but he wasn't so sure about the angel. He didn't want her to burn to a crisp when he went through so much trouble to get her out of the moon… Now there was a surreal sentence, even for someone like him. This whole situation was more surreal than anything he knew: A demon helping an angel instead of torturing her to death slowly, like his blood screamed him to do.

For some reason he was able to ignore his blood's call easily, it just seemed like torturing her to death wasn't something he _could_ do… Seriously, he would have to find a way out of the effect of this spell.

Bezanthume reached the level of the clouds and dived right through. If it was oxygen she needed to regenerate, then it would be better to fly low. He decided to take a heading towards Japan. Going to France didn't really appeal to him that much anymore. He flew as fast as he could and only about hundred feet above the ground. The force of the shockwave he was leaving behind made the trees blow over and for buildings to shake as they would in an earthquake. There was more than a few people and cars thrown in the air by the massive gush of wind as well. Bezanthume noted all of this when he flew over a small town on the coast of Asia and happened to glance behind his shoulder. A small smile curved his lips up, only if he could get the permission to do that in a larger scale. War was his favorite pastime and he was talented in it. His team _always _won.

He arrived above the islands of Japan and closed his eyes to home in on Inoue Orihime's mind, Karakura Town. Lights flashed into existence around him and everything else was reduced to darkness in comparison. He filtered them out one by one and eventually there were lights in only one way, slightly to the right from the direction he was going right now. He had honed his senses to pick up minds that were "special" in their ability to control their souls. He counted about a half a dozen, three of which were especially bright or intense, three fluttering and faint and fluttering and one, the brightest one, was a light shade of pink. Every other kind of light was a plainly colored as white, dull light and the only exceptions to that rule were either angels or demons… He turned to the pink light and opened his eyes again.

"**Damn that air-headed bitch…" **Bezanthume growled. He had a hard time believing that anyone could do something like this by mistake, but he had seen the circumstances leading to this and had to face reality. He turned his attention to the lean figure he was holding in his arms. He had not felt her move at all, but it did seem that the wounds on her wings were closing up. He was more worried about the wound on her chest. The enchantment on the sword had been considerably more potent than the ones on the on cast on the spears… He was worried? What the hell! Demons do not worry for an angel's life! He wanted to get rid of this spell as soon as possible.

He reached Karakura Town, turned himself and the angel intangible, steered himself into Inoue Orihime's apartment and stopped himself by creating a nullifying surge of energy within his body, to lessen the impact on the world around him. He looked around the apartment and when he couldn't see her he listened for signs of her using the bathroom. He was not going to tempt his fate again by barging in there while she was in there. He didn't hear anything, so he had to conclude she wasn't there. Where was she, buying groceries? Possible, she would be hungry, she did miss her lunch, but was it even time for that yet? How long had he been gone anyways? His perception of time was probably fucked up because of that angel's spell, so he didn't trust his own judgment.

He looked around the apartment for a place to place the angel on. The bed was too narrow for her wind span, so it seemed like the floor was the only viable option. He kneeled down and placed her on the floor, careful not to damage her frail wings. He looked into the angel's eyes again. They were staring up into the ceiling, but he definitely still saw the flame of light in there. If everything else failed, then Inoue Orihime could try to heal her, Lilith, yes, to heal Lilith, the angel.

Bezanthume averted his eyes with a little too much effort he would have liked for there to be and then sat down on Inoue Orihime's bed. He retracted his wings and laid himself on the bed. His legs were touching the floor and both of his arms were on either side of the bed, but it was better than standing up, or flying for that matter. He just flew to the moon and back, so he deserved a break. Bezanthume closed his eyes to try and at least find out if Inoue Orihime was close by or if she heading back, he could do that much without actually directing his eyes. The darkness came and he could feel the lights around him. So many lives shining their own light, but still doomed to be extinguished someday, so many possibilities, so many ways to die. Poor humans… Bezanthume felt the lights swirl around him and his eyelids were getting heavier and heavier by the second. The idea of getting up and shaking off the effects of the spell seemed completely ridiculous. This felt so comfortable that he could just –

Ah, fuck. Not again…

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**Yeah, the ending is identical to the last chapter, but I really do have a hard time finding a place to stop writing, so I had to come up with something. I'll be a happy little ferret if you were to leave a review, or PM me about anything that bothers you or a question you would like answered. Needles to say, I will not answer any question in the sake of the story, but I'll try and answer in some way... Well, it's up to you points finger reader.**

**_Crazy Laughter_**


	5. Nice

**This chapter was really hard to name, so you'll have to deal with the illogical title... nothing else to say.**

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**Chapter Five**

**Nice**

Orihime stopped at the counter to pay for her groceries. As usual, she had almost forgotten to do so, but the shopkeeper knew her and was kind enough to remind her before she walked out the door. She apologized and smiled as usual and paid the shopkeeper too much, even though he said the amount out loud. The shopkeeper gave her back the excess money, as usual. She did this sometimes as well, but it had become a rarity and she had hoped she had outgrown the unconventional habit. She was living on her own, so it should be about time she learned to handle money. Well, she had other things in her mind right now and she was prone on spacing out whenever she did.

What was Bezanthume doing in France? What could he possibly have to do in France? And why did he leave that message? Was he in a hurry, or was he still too mad to stay and wait for her to wake up? Orihime remembered the incredible feeling of hate coming from his whole essence. It was something like an overpowering feeling of a massive reiatsu, but something much more feral and… uncontrollable. Except that in the end it had changed completely. The blunt force of his rage lessened, but when she looked into his eyes it felt like there was something more concentrated and controlled looming over her, like a surgical blade ready to rip her stomach open and spill out her guts. Shivers ran up and down her spine just because of the thought.

Why had she even thought of him as anything but a monster to begin with? He was a blood-thirsty demon that had attacked Yuzu without any regret and only regretted it afterwards because Yuzu was tied to one of her friends. He was nothing more than an immoral beast that actually drank the blood of the innocent to satisfy his hunger. Orihime kept on walking to her apartment, oblivious to the world around her to such an extent that it was a miracle she wasn't hit by a car, again. She cursed Bezanthume in her mind until her naturally kind nature reared its timid head.

On the other hand, he had used his power too much to fulfill her wishes and even though he was able to piss her off while doing so, the fact that the things he had done so far were _nice _still remained. First he brought her back in time to the time before Aizen meddled with her or her friends' lives. Of course he had his own motives and he had been horrible to her to make her agree, but it was still basically a nice thing to do. Then he used his powers again to get her to school in time, which definitely would be considered nice if he hadn't felt her up. She wasn't sure if he actually had done that, but still…

Then there had been that whole thing at the hospital. The last thing she remembered was getting on the elevator to go down to the lobby and after that her memory was completely blank until she woke up in her apartment with Bezanthume collapsed on the floor. She still wasn't sure what happened, but it looked like the ring on her finger had something to do with it. Bezanthume had snapped after seeing something engraved inside one of the rings lying on the floor and yet the message he had left told her not to take the ring off. Orihime raised his right hand up to level with her eyes and looked at the simple silver ring on it. It had detailed engravings of thorns going around its whole length. The engravings were done so masterfully that it actually looked like the thorns were moving when she moved her hand. Orihime wondered if Bezanthume had made it himself. She just could not imagine Bezanthume going shopping for jewelry.

Orihime noticed that she had stopped walking at some point and was standing in the sidewalk staring at her new ring. The thought struck her that Bezanthume had already given her two pieces of jewelry during one day without it feeling strange at all. Why wasn't she feeling bad from receiving two gifts in one day and from a boy above anything else? Orihime knew that he looked like a tall man in a hooded overcoat and that his voice was masculine, but did she actually know if he actually could be called a "he". There might not be any genders among demons; they might as well be asexual for all she knew.

No, if he was asexual, then why would he be offended when she thought he was raping Halibel? Or why would he feel her up? Well, she still wasn't sure if Bezanthume had done that, but for him to even hint towards that meant that he could… or he might have been messing with her head for his own amusement by making her think he was a guy? Orihime could definitely picture him doing that.

Orihime started walking again and tried to keep her mind from wandering away again. That attempt was doomed to fail from the very beginning. After a couple of minutes she was walking to the direction of her apartment without paying any attention to her surroundings. She walked into the street while the light was red and was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the horn of a car and the screeching of tires when a the driver noticed her a little too late. She whipped her head around to the direction of the sound and saw the grid of a dark blue SUV coming at her. She raised her hands up reflexively to protect herself. She was going to die! She was too young to die. She felt a rush of adrenaline go through his system right before impact…

That never came. Orihime opened her eyes and peeked through her fingers to find out exactly what happened. What she saw shocked her to the bone. She saw the blue SUV floating 12 feet up in mid-air. There were sounds of the frames of the car creaking under an unknown pressure and she saw how the windows of the car started to crack how the basket of the car was slowly bending inwards. Her hands dropped to her sides from pure shock and her mouth was wide open. She felt a sharp nudge on her right hand as it fell to her side and the car crashed back down on the street right in front of her. She saw how the driver was thrown around like a ragdoll before the airbag knocked him out. His white hair was a mess and his glasses were broken, but he looked like he was breathing. Inoue Orihime picked up her bag of groceries and ran away.

What the hell just happened? Did she do that? How could she have done that? Her powers manifested themselves as six little fairies and she had never done anything like that. There had been no orange glow and the hairpins on her head had not reacted at all…

But there had been a nudge in her right hand, the hand where Bezanthume's ring was. Did Bezanthume give her this power? Was this small silver ring really able to lift a three-ton car 12- feet up in the air in a blink of an eye? How was that possible and even more importantly: would Bezanthume just give her this kind of power as a gift? He didn't seem like a charitable person. Actually, she wasn't sure what kind of person he was. Sure, he kept on saying that he was a demon, a monster, but he had been nice to her after his release from the orb. He answered her questions truthfully and explained things in a way she could understand. And then there was that little psychotic break he had and it only pronounced the fact that he was not human, or even a spirit for that matter. Or so he said…

Orihime realized that she was getting close to her apartment and slowed down to a brisk walk. Somehow it didn't seem like a good idea to stick around after wrecking a car that was about to wreck you. The government would lock her up in a remote facility somewhere and dissect her to find out how she did it. Then she would be turned into an android and sent to countless battlefields… That would be cool… No! It wouldn't! Get it together, get it together already! This was serious. She had to figure this out. So, Bezanthume gave her a ring that she was not supposed to take off, under any circumstance. The message he left was really specific about that. Now that ring had caused her to wreck an expensive looking SUV and hurt the driver. It was amazing that a small piece of silver could have that kind of power, but the question burning her mind was that why would Bezanthume give her this ring. It had saved her from being run over and possibly death, but sill…

Wait… saved her? Maybe Bezanthume gave her this ring to protect her. That's what it seemed to be doing. Orihime looked down to the ring on the middle finger of her right hand and saw it in a whole new light. She saw it as it was: A gift, a genuine gift, something given to keep her safe. He undoubtedly had ulterior motives, but still, if you thought about it; it was a nice thing to do. How does he keep doing that? He keeps being nice, but it still it feels like he's messing with me?

Orihime walked into the inner courtyard of her apartment building with her mind torn between being angry at Bezanthume and thanking him. He walked up the stairs trying to make sense of her little blackout back in the hospital. She had been out for at least an hour and had no recollection of the time in between the elevator of the hospital and her waking up on the floor of her apartment. She woke up with the ring on her finger, but she had not noticed it and when she did Bezanthume had already slammed her against a wall...

Thinking about this made her brain hurt. She would just ask Bezanthume and hope that he didn't have a reason to lie. She couldn't imagine him, as a demon, to have some moral dilemma about lying. She remembered reading somewhere that demons were masters of deception and lies, great temptators, malevolent voices and speakers of half-truths. One of the few times she had been able to use the internet without breaking it and that was what she found, even though she was searching for a recipe for hunters cutlet. She never did find out how to make it.

Orihime dug out the key from her pocket and opened the door to her apartment. He couldn't imagine Bezanthume being back yet. He said he was going to France in his message and it did take longer than a couple of hours to travel there and back. That was part of the reason why she was so stunned to see a beautiful blond woman with white wings lying on the floor of her apartment.

"My god! Are you alright?" Orihime screamed and rushed over to her side. She was careful not to step on her wings; they looked a lot more fragile than Bezanthume's. She knelt down to her and raised her hands up on the hairpins on her temples.

"Shouten Kess –" Orihime was almost able to finish the incantation before her hairpins suddenly turned into noisy little flying fairies.

"Damn it, woman! Took you long enough to call us again! We've been worried sick!" Tsubaki yelled right in front of her face. There were miniature veins popping out on his forehead. The other fairies were gathered behind him. Orihime noticed that Ayame was hiding inside her wings and Shun'ou was straightening out his clothes and his hair was out of its usual ponytail. Had she interrupted something? She really didn't want to think about what happened inside her mind, so she decided to dismiss the matter.

"What has that demon done to you? Did he hurt you?" Lily asked and pushed Tsubaki aside. She looked worried and her eyes looked frantic behind her yellow goggles.

"What is this all about, you guys? More importantly: Shun'ou, Ayame, could you please heal that woman?" Orihime said and turned her attention back to Shun'ou and Ayame. Shun'ou was tying his hair back into its usual ponytail and Ayame was tying the hash of her kimono. They blushed for some reason and then hurried to form the healing vector around the beautiful woman. The vector would work without her looking over it, it would not be as effective, but she had to get things straightened out with the other fairies. Tsubaki flew over to the winged woman and looked at her suspiciously.

"What's this, another demon?" Tsubaki hovered over the woman and focused his eyes on the lines on her wings. Lily flew over to Bezanthume's body lying on Orihime's bed and landed on his chest. Even though it looked like he was sleeping the hood was still covering his face completely. Orihime had started to consider the hooded overcoat as a part of Bezanthume and had stopped being curious as to what his face looked like. This was not the case with Lily.

"Would you like to sneak a peek at his face? I wonder if he even looks human… Hinagiku, Baigon, come here and help me with him!" Lily chirped and jumped next to his head.

"Hey guys, just wait a minute… I don't think he'll like that…" Orihime said meekly and walked over to Lily and company. They were trying to support his head up, so that they could slip the hood down to his neck.

"What's he gonna do? Rip your head off?" Lily said sarcastically kept on commandeering Baigon and Hinagiku. Orihime bowed her head and didn't respond.

"What… wait a minute… He wouldn't really do that, right? What has he done to you so far?" Lily asked. Tsubaki flew over to Orihime as well and repeated the question, only a whole lot more rudely. They both looked at Orihime and waited for an answer. They were practically living inside her mind, so why didn't they know about Bezanthume's little outburst? They seemed to know about Bezanthume's wings. How else Tsubaki could think that the angelic woman on the floor was a demon? It was worth asking them.

"You're in my mind, so you should already know the answer…" Orihime said and looked away. Tsubaki and Lily glanced at each other and Tsubaki gestured for Lily to explain.

"We don't know what happened, but we have been unable to connect with you for a couple of hours now. The last thing we saw was you getting into an elevator in Karakura's general hospital and after that the screen have been black. We thought that Bezanthume had done something to you and that you would call us, but when you didn't… Well, we got worried. There were so strange things lurking around at some point…" Lily explained. Tsubaki nodded approvingly behind her and didn't feel like adding anything in.

The fact that the fairies had been unable to reach her during her little blackout was not surprising and didn't shock her that much, but what shocked her was what Lily was implying. There were screens inside her head? Was there a whole control room to go with it? Did they watch her live out her life like she would watch TV? That was disturbing, deeply disturbing. Tsubaki and Lily were still looking at her in search of an answer.

"He… He lost his temper… He fixed everything he broke and it's not like I'm hurt or anything." Orihime didn't actually lie. If they didn't know anything after the hospital, then they couldn't know about her unnatural rate of healing. This worked to soothe Tsubaki's aggression to some extent and to test if they were lying to her. She hated doubting parts of her soul, but her stay at Las Noches had taught her to not be so trusting all the time. Tsubaki and Lily seemed pleased with her answer none the less. At least they were not lying to her, which was a relief. Lily and Tsubaki both went to Bezanthume and tried to lift his head with Baigon and Hinagiku.

Orihime stepped back over to the woman lying on the floor. It would be faster if she was there to direct the rejecting energy. She finally was able to look over the wounds on the woman. The large gaping gash on her chest looked especially painful and life threatening, so she concentrated on it. The blood on the white robes she wore and the blood on her wings looked old, really old. There was no reiatsu blocking her from rejecting the wounds, but there was something in the wound in her chest that pushed the energies back a little. It didn't feel evil though. Actually, it felt… holy somehow.

"Baigon, support his neck! Tsubaki, pull the hood back, will ya!" Lily shouted out with a commanding tone. They were still trying to reveal Bezanthume's face and Orihime paid attention to the noise they were making just now. She was just as interested in finally seeing Bezanthume's face. Tsubaki grabbed Bezanthume's hood and then started pulling it out behind his head. The hood looked like it was reluctant to come off, but Tsubaki cursed heavily and kept on pulling. Somehow the hood was able to transmit its desire to strangle Tsubaki before finally falling under Bezanthume's head. Orihime was sitting on the floor so she couldn't see what was revealed, but by the stunned silence of her fairies he had to be really hideous. She wasn't really sure if she even wanted to know what Bezanthume looked like.

"Oh, he looks cute when he's sleeping, doesn't he? Wonder what he would like awake?" Lily chirped. Tsubaki glanced at her, but didn't say anything. Now this was interesting. Orihime got up and started tip-toeing towards her bed. Lily was hovering right over his face to get a better look. Orihime closed the gap between her and Bezanthume. She turned her eyes to his face, fearing the worst and hoping for an unfamiliar looking face.

Lily had been right; he did look kind of cute while he was sleeping, like a sleeping wolf or something. His eyes were closed, so the glow of his eyes didn't ruin it by bringing their aggressive shine on his face. He was not snoring; actually he was sleeping rather quietly for someone his size. His chest rose slowly and steadily and one of his fangs was peeking out of his mouth. Weirdly, these were the things her attention was first drawn to before she started to soak in his facial features.

He had tanned skin that was surprisingly free of any scars, but there was some kind of symbol right under his right eye that looked like it had been broken. Orihime couldn't recognize it to mean anything, so it had to be in his own language. He had very tanned skin, so dark that it almost looked like he had been born with it, but still she got the impression that his tan had not come from soaking in the sun. It looked like his skin had been scorched to that dark shade under a great deal of heat. Orihime wasn't sure if that was even possible, but that was the feeling she got. She had been having more of those lately. His face was surprisingly human. If he would just avoid smiling too much and wear dark glasses, then he would pass as a human. He would still be a behemoth of a man, sure, but still would look just as human as Sado.

Then there were his hair. His hair was a dark color that bordered on black, but when Orihime looked closer it was just an extremely dark shade of red. His brows were the same color. His hair looked like they were long, maybe not as long as hers, but longer than Rukia's. All of his hair fell behind his head and hung from the side of her bed when Baigon finally was able to get out from supporting his neck. Orihime's hand reached out to touch his hair for her to know what they felt like. Somehow it felt vital for her to know if they were as soft as they looked.

Bezanthume's eyes snapped open. His calm breathing stopped and he looked her straight in the eye. His eyes were at the same time the most frightening and most appealing feature about him. They were oval shaped and would have bordered on looking feminine without the red glow of his eyes. Now she knew who he reminded her of: Kuchiki Byakuya. If his eyes would have been blue and if he wore his hair in that same ridiculous manner, then he could be mistaken as Kuchiki Byakuya, from afar, but still. The tanned skin and his size reminded her of Zaraki Kenpachi… If he would wear his hair in _that _ridiculous manner, then he could be mistaken for Zaraki Kenpachi as well... from afar.

"**So, in your mind I look like a beefed up Byakuya with a tan? That could be considered offending, you know." **Bezanthume grinned and didn't wait for her to answer. He sat up on the bed, totally ignoring Orihime's fairies standing on his chest. Lily was especially unlucky, since she had been hovering over his face she had ended up tangled in his hair. Bezanthume picked her out of his hair, careful not to hurt them, and then dropped Lily on the bed. He stood up and looked around the room. His eyes lingered on the woman on the floor.

"**So you're healing her… She is alive, of that I am sure, but the fact that she hasn't woken up yet disturbs me. How long have you been healing her?" **Bezanthume turned his eyes to Orihime again and now she noticed something in them she hadn't noticed a moment ago. He looked sleepy. His eyes were half closed and he was blinking from time to time.

"About five minutes I guess. Who is…" Orihime's thoughts were interrupted when Bezanthume opened his mouth and let out a huge yawn. She could see the fangs on his bottom and upper jaw sticking out. She also noticed that his tongue was forked when it shot out of his mouth and quivered in the air. He closed his mouth and smacked his lips a couple of times. His eyes looked more aware now.

"**Oh, look, your fairies are here… What happened to my hood?" **Immediately after this question Bezanthume's arms shot out and suddenly he was clutching Lily and Baigon on his right hand and Tsubaki and Hinagiku on his left. He had a wide smirk on his face and that scared the small fairies more than the murderous light of his eyes. The smirk made them realize that they were looking like conveniently bite-sized snacks for him.

"ORIHIME-SAMAAA!!" The fairies cried out desperately and tried to struggle their out of Bezanthume's clenched fists. They failed. Bezanthume inched them closer to his face until they were only a mere inch away from his eyes. He opened his mouth and that made the fairies scream in terror.

"**Which one of you did it?" **Bezanthume asked in an even tone.

"LILY!" Was the male fairies mutual response. Bezanthume turned his eyes to the small female fairy. Lily tried her best to disappear through pure willpower, but failed to do so. She closed her eyes to wait for the inevitable.

"**Oh, well, in that case: No harm done." **Bezanthume said and let the fairies go. Both the fairies and Orihime stared at him in shock. The fairies didn't want to mention it again and Orihime had something else to ask him.

"Bezanthume, could you tell me who this woman is? Where did you find her?" Orihime as ked and returned to healing her wounds. The ones on her wings were already closing up, but the gash on her chest insisted on staying as life threatening. It was still going unusually fast though.

"**Her true name is Lilith, she is an angel and I found her on the moon." **Bezanthume said in a plain tone, like it was not even slightly surprising that he would bring an angel down from the moon.

"Am I seriously supposed to believe that you found an angel from the moon? And am I also supposed to believe that you flew to the moon and back in the three hours you were gone? Come on, I'm not th –"

"**She's waking up."**

"that stupid!" Orihime finished, not paying any attention to Bezanthume's interruption. Orihime glanced down to the supposed angel down on the floor and saw that her head was nudging up and down. It looked like she was trying to cough, but for some reason was unable to do so. Bezanthume stepped into the healing vector without paying any attention to Orihime and pulled the woman into a sitting position.

"What are you doing? Stop that, she's not fully healed yet!" Orihime shouted frantically. Bezanthume had said that she was an angel, so was he now about to kill her? Bezanthume supported her on his left forearm and raised his right hand above his head.

"Wait!" Orihime screamed and tried to lunge in to stop him, but knew that she couldn't make it in time.

Bezanthume slammed her on the back with the palm of his hand and the fair haired angel slung across his arm coughed out a cloud of fine gray dust that formed a small pile under her, moon dust.

So, Bezanthume just saved the angel he brought down from the moon. Orihime couldn't believe that this was happening to her.

* * *

**Yeah, the ending was not as dramatic as I would have wanted it to be, but I don't want to make the chapter too long, so I had to stop it at some point.**

**Crazy Laughter**


	6. Different preferences

**This chapter contains something that could be considered, well, if not adult then at least close, material. Viewer Discression is adviced (No, I haven't been watching TV! Too much...)**

**Hope you enjoy the crack pairing!**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

**Different preferences**

Orihime watched as Bezanthume acted… very un-Bezanthume like. He set the angel back on the floor and supported her to her knees. The angel kept on coughing out small clouds of gray dust. Her eyes darted around the room when she was not coughing violently and her blue eyes were wide as saucers. She looked absolutely terrified and it looked like she was looking for whoever she was afraid of. Her eyes landed on Orihime and her wings flinched towards her own body from the shock of seeing her, but she calmed down immediately. Seemingly she didn't resemble the object of her fear. Her coughing gradually died down and she focused her attention to the hand supporting her. Her whole body tensed up and her eyes slowly followed the hand up the arm and to Bezanthume's face.

"**Hello, Lilith." **Bezanthume simply said. By the angel's reaction you could think he had threatened to kill her very, very slowly as she jumped up immediately and retreated away from Bezanthume until she hit a wall. Her mouth opened and closed, but not a sound came out. She grabbed her chest and started to cough again. She slid down the wall when her legs gave out from under her.

"**Could you get her a glass of water, Princess?" **Bezanthume calmly asked. He had not moved at all when the angel reacted to him like she did. He had made no movement that could be considered offensive and with him it was right about any kind of movement. It was like he was dealing with a frightful deer or something. It disturbed Orihime that he even knew how to do that. She ran to the kitchen and filled a glass with water and then walked over to offer it to Lilith. She flexed back from her hand and looked at the glass suspiciously. The pain in her throat seemed to overcome the fear of being poisoned and she accepted the water. She gulped down half of the glass and then coughed again, but now it only sounded she was clearing her throat, not coughing out her lungs. She turned her eyes back to Bezanthume.

"Thank you…" Lilith said in a quiet raspy voice. She took another sip from the glass while still keeping her eyes fixed on Bezanthume. Some of her original fear was gone but Orihime could see that she was still wary of him. The expression on Bezanthume's face had not changed at all. He was completely stoic, careful not to show any emotion, but there was something that both Orihime and Lilith noticed to be different about him. Their eyes happened to meet and they both saw the same astonishment in each other's eyes. Bezanthume glanced back and forth between them.

"**What is this all about? You just met and I already have the feeling you are working behind my back…" **Bezanthume said in his rumbling voice, but his voice was not laced with anger, but with amusement, much to Orihime's surprise. Sure, he had smirked, laughed and taunted her before, but now it was different… Could it be that the hood was not hiding his face anymore? Could it make such a difference…? Sure, that might be it. Now that Orihime knew that he had a face, a handsome_ human_ face at that, it was getting impossible for her to think of him just as a monster. He definitely looked like a man, sounded like a man, acted like a man, but…

"Bezanthume, are you asexual?" Orihime blurted out. Bezanthume turned to her slowly. There was stunned silence in the room. Orihime blushed at her own harsh question and looked away. Lilith took another sip from her glass and watched the scene in front of her.

"**WHAT?!" **Bezanthume roared and shot up to tower over Orihime. His eyes were shining as bright as the sun in the sky and the whole room was bathed in crimson light. Bezanthume bared his fangs and growled at Orihime. He stared right into her mind and saw the trail of thought that caused her to ask the question in the first place. His snarl gradually changed into a wide smirk and the growl into a fit of laughter. Lilith almost choked on her water when Bezanthume started to laugh so hard that it made the glass in her hand resonate violently. Bezanthume swayed on his feet and then fell to his knees and hunched over while holding his stomach.

"**I can't… believe you… Princess!" **Bezanthume managed to rumble out between fits of laughter. Lilith finished the glass of water and then walked over to Orihime and handed her the resonating glass. Then she turned to Bezanthume and kicked him in the head with her bare foot. Bezanthume was knocked on his back and he stopped laughing immediately. Bezanthume shot up again and towered over Lilith with willpower crackling in the air between them. Lilith was completely calm under Bezanthume's glare and she slapped him on the cheek with her right wing. She couldn't reach him with her hands. Bezanthume's head snapped back and he stared at Lilith in surprise. She had her hands across her chest and an angry expression on her face.

"**Uhm… What is this all about now? You do know that I just saved you, right?" **Bezanthume said, sounding utterly confused. Orihime was yet again surprised that he didn't seem to be angry at Lilith. What was exactly going on between them? They were a demon and an angel, so they should be ripping each other apart right now but instead they were acting more like an old married couple…

"You were just about to break every piece of glass this girl owns!" Lilith shouted at Bezanthume, not really seeming angry. She was probably only trying to get her point across to him. Bezanthume glanced at a very lost looking Orihime and then turned back to Lilith.

"**So what? Glass isn't that expensive anymore. I do not need to care if I would happen to break them. She can always buy more." **Bezanthume said and looked down to Lilith, challenging her to prove him wrong. Lilith snapped her head to Orihime with her hair whipping around her head.

"Is this true?" Lilith asked in a voice full of authority, like a noble asking a mere commoner. Her blue eyes looked just as threatening as Bezanthume's in spite of her bird-like frame. Lilith might not be able to scare her with just her size, but still Orihime felt uneasy under the gaze of her piercing blue eyes.

"Uhm… Glass is not that expensive per say, but still I would like to not have the ones I own destroyed…" Orihime mumbled out. She had decided to try and stay neutral in this spur of the moment debate Lilith and Bezanthume were engaged in.

"See? You will have to give a formal apology to this girl right this minute!" Lilith ordered Bezanthume and struck her foot down. She was acting more and more like a member of nobility in Orihime's eyes. Bezanthume took a moment to consider Lilith's words before saying anything.

"**Fuck you. Like I'm going to start apologizing to things I haven't done, or to things that I should have done. You can take your apology and –" **Bezanthume said in a low growl. Orihime decided to jump in before Lilith would end up tearing up her apartment in the upcoming attempt to make Bezanthume apologize to her.

"Tea anyone? Lilith, you must still have a sore throat and I just happen to have something that might help with that, so if you would just sit down and I'll bring it to you –" Orihime stepped right between them and forced them to concentrate on her.

"**What are you doing, you –" **Bezanthume was able to say before Orihime turned her eyes to him and silenced him immediately.

"_Both of you…"_ Orihime said with murderous intent strong enough to silence a demon shining from her eyes. Both Bezanthume and Lilith hurried to gather around the small table in the room. Orihime smiled innocently and hurried to make the tea. Bezanthume and Lilith sat in silence for a minute.

"She's scary…" Lilith whispered to Bezanthume.

Bezanthume nodded in response. It was impossible for him to whisper with his voice as it was and neither one of them wanted to disturb the beast that seemed to lurk within Inoue Orihime. They watched as she prepared the tea while humming a pleasant tune and doubted their own memory of what happened. Could there really be something that dangerous within this girl? It just didn't seem possible, but neither one of them were ones to doubt their own memory and sat quietly. Both of them had spent vast amounts of time with their bodies confined in one way or another and it was uncomfortable for them to stay still. The knock on the door was a welcomed excuse for them to jump up.

"Oi, Orihime! How did it go with Kurosaki? Did you make any headway with him?" Arisawa Tatsuki yelled from behind the door. Orihime ran out from the kitchen and looked shocked and at a loss to what to do in this situation. Bezanthume and Lilith glanced at each other.

"It seems like this girl has a social visit that would be easier to handle without us present." Lilith stated.

"**It certainly seems that way. Should we rid this place of our presence then?" **Bezanthume said in a calm voice and spread his wings. Lilith smiled and did the same.

"A splendid Idea, Benny-chan." Lilith said and launched off through the ceiling. Bezanthume coughed from the moon dust that had been scattered in the air and sighed deeply. He muttered out a string of words and there was a short series of bright flashes of light. When Orihime could see again the dust was gone, along with Bezanthume. Bezanthume had been considerate enough to take care of the dust…

"Orihime, are you in there?" Tatsuki asked and rung the doorbell. Orihime decided to try and forget about Bezanthume and Lilith and spend some time with her friend. It had been so long for her, but so little time for Tatsuki. She hadn't been able to catch up at school, as Bezanthume kept her busy very effectively.

"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime screamed, opened the door and was able to wrap Tatsuki in a hug before her martial art reflexes kicked in. Those reflexes were just about to kick in when Tatsuki noticed that Orihime was crying against her chest. Instead of pushing her away she guided them both inside Orihime's apartment and closed the door behind them. She'll let her cry out whatever had traumatized her this time and then go and let the reason for all this have it.

"There there, I'm sure he didn't mean it…" Tatsuki soothed Orihime and petted her head reassuringly. She naturally presumed that Ichigo had said or done something to upset Orihime. Orihime was sobbing against her chest and muttering something about things like "Las Noches" or "Ulquiorra". Tatsuki would have to wait for her to calm down and start making sense again.

**Lilith**

"**I have something that I need to attend to concerning the contract I have with this girl." **Bezanthume said to Lilith while they were flying above Karakura Town. Lilith crossed her arms on her chest and pouted like a spoiled child.

"You demons and your damned contracts! Can't you give it a rest already? You know as well as I do that there is no contract other than a blood scripture that can really bind demons, or angels for that matter! It's just your foolish pride that binds you to her!" Lilith sped up and made Bezanthume stop by stopping right in front of him. She was breathing heavily. Her lungs still hadn't recovered from being torn by dust for god knows how long. Bezanthume had spent the time he was trapped in that orb in his ethereal form and his body was exactly like it had been when he was imprisoned. It would take a while for Lilith to recover.

Bezanthume stopped in front of her with one wide swoop of his wings and stared at her with a cold look in his eyes. Lilith knew that now when they were in the air she had the upper hand as she was more nimble than Bezanthume, but still she felt shivers run up and down her spine. He really hadn't changed at all.

"**As I said: I have something that I **_**have **_**to do, so if you'll excuse me…" **Bezanthume gave her no other heads up than the light from his wings brightening momentarily before blasting right by her at full speed. Lilith spun around in the air because of the gush of wind before being able to stabilize herself.

"Fuck you too!" Lilith screamed after him, even though she knew there was no way he could hear her. Still it made her feel better. She hovered in place for a while. She was in a foreign city in a foreign land and really didn't know what to do. She let out a dramatic sigh and then flew down to ground level. She was just going to walk the streets and just relax. She hadn't been able to do that in a long time. The world must have changed and she wanted to see it.

Lilith descended down to the streets and then caught a glimpse of herself on a reflection. Her robes were torn on her chest and stained with dried up blood. Why didn't Bezanthume say anything? She did not want to be seen like this. She could just buy a new one, but she didn't have any money. Of course she could… she could… steal it, but… every fiber of her being detested the idea. She was an angel after all.

Lilith flew over to the roof of a building, where there were no peering eyes, and started to chant a spell in a melodic voice. Strands of light started to dance around her and her whole form was bathed in light. The white fabric of her robes turned luminescent and then dissipated to the dancing light around her. For a second she stood there without anything covering her naked body. This was exactly why she went to a place where there were no people to see her. She was supposed to be invisible, but she still didn't feel comfortable undressing in front of people. The strands of light dancing around her closed in and then spun around her body like a whirlwind.

When the lights disappeared gradually Lilith was wearing a pure white summer dress, a big bright white sun hat with a red lace on it and white strapped sandals. She didn't want to get too complicated in a foreign culture where she could offend someone by wearing the wrong things. She had seen people wearing the same kind of clothes down on the street and thought that this choice was probably safe. Lilith retracted her wings and then walked over to the edge of the roof and jumped down. She landed gracefully on the street below. Unlike most demons, angels could levitate even with their wings hidden. Bezanthume had been almost able to learn how to do it.

Lilith turned herself visible again and then started to leisurely walk down the street and gawking at all the things on sale and on display. After five minutes she hoped she had some money. All the things on display looked delicious, beautiful or cute. She was looking through the window of a pet store when a red-haired girl with glasses stepped next to her. She glanced at her briefly before returning to look at the cute little kittens and puppies play with each other.

"Hello, what's your name?" The red-haired girl asked. Lilith decided to try and ignore her and stayed focused on the furry little animals. Actually she couldn't understand what she was saying, but a little bit of telepathy fixed that right up. It was more instinctual now already to decipher what someone said by peeking into their mind.

"You're not from around here, are you?" The persistent red-haired girl asked. What in god's name did she want from her? Lilith spared her another glance and looked a little deeper into her mind while doing so. The things she saw made her blush slightly. Oh, this girl was one of _those _people… Bezanthume would think that this is interesting, but I would have to say that this only bothers me. Lilith considered different ways of going about this, but suddenly she became aware of her own hunger. She had just used a spell and spent eons trapped on the moon.

"Yes, you could say that I'm not from around here. Care to show me around a bit? Please?" Lilith said and gave the girl a radiant smile. God, this was so easy. She wouldn't even have to use any charms. Seeing how this girl seemed to be flipping from joy just because of one smile. She wasn't even suspicious of the fact that I can speak her language so fluidly.

"I would love to! My name's Chizuru, nice to meet you." The girl bowed just a little and Lilith thought that she should do the same. She bowed her head towards the girl and allowed her hair to fall past her eyes.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Chizuru. My name is Lily. I hope I have not offended you by asking you to spend your time on the likes of me." Lilith said. She didn't want to seem impolite and decided to overdo it just in case. Now it was Chizuru's turn to blush. Lilith heard how she was screaming from joy inside her head, something along the lines of "Strike! Lucky! Thank you, gods!" and such. It was impressive that she was able to not show these emotions on the outside. Other than the radiant smile she gave Lilith and the haste in which she started to drag her along the street.

**Bezanthume**

Bezanthume flew over Karakura Town and was looking for a single mind out of the sea of lights below him. He had not been that much in contact with Kuchiki Rukia, so actually homing in on her mind was a challenge. Still he had a couple of clues as to where she might be. Frankly anywhere where Kurosaki Ichigo was or had been was a place she might be in. He flew over Kurosaki Ichigo's house and noticed the gaping opening in the house he had left earlier. So, Kuchiki Rukia was not here.

According to Inoue Orihime's memories and the thoughts from no other than Kuchiki Rukia the forces of Soul Society were about to come after her and she was about to leave Kurosaki Ichigo to protect him. She will leave a note explaining it to Kurosaki Ichigo before doing so and Bezanthume hoped to find her before that. If he ever was to fulfill his side of the contract, then this was the most logical time to intervene.

Bezanthume took a heading towards the hospital, the place where Kurosaki Ichigo was most likely to be, and thus Kuchiki Rukia as well. He flew over to the roof of the hospital and closed his eyes to search for Rukia's mind. The familiar sea of lights appeared in front of him and he couldn't help but notice Kurosaki Yuzu's pure white light. How could someone even stay so pure at this day and age? He remembered her overprotective brother and the rest of her family and had to admit it was plausible. He spared another glance towards Kurosaki Yuzu and noted that the lights around her were those of her family members' and the hospital staffs. No Kuchiki Rukia inside the hospital.

What now? He could not think of any other places and the note was just something he thought she would leave. She could be anywhere by now. Bezanthume stood there with his eyes closed and tried to find Kuchiki Rukia from the surrounding area. Would she be writing the message somewhere, a park, or a café maybe? Bezanthume had wrecked her place of residence, Kurosaki Ichigo's closet, so she would have to find some other place. Where the hell was that owl-eyed bitch?

Bezanthume turned himself intangible and slid down to the floor where Kurosaki Yuzu was. He would check if Kuchiki Rukia had left the note already and if she had not, then he would wait. If there was a note here already, then he would have to use more efficient means of finding her. Bezanthume turned back in the hallway outside Kurosaki Yuzu's room and walked up to the door and walked through it. He was relieved to see that Kurosaki Yuzu was looking healthier now. Her father was wailing next to her bed, but he still had enough sense in him not jump in and hug her, that would screw up the machines set up around Kurosaki Yuzu. It didn't look like she needed them though. She was still a little pale, but she was trying to get her family to believe she was feeling better. None of them were listening.

Bezanthume turned to look at Kurosaki Ichigo, who seemed to be seething from anger in the corner of the room. He looked more like a moping child to Bezanthume, but his affection towards her sister was clearly the cause and that gave his immature anger a noble touch. Bezanthume checked around the room and saw nothing that could be considered to be a note. Well, the timeline implied that the forces that were going to get Kuchiki Rukia back into soul society would arrive by sundown, so he had time to wait. Bezanthume glanced at the hassle around Kurosaki Yuzu and then turned his eyes back to the brooding Kurosaki Ichigo.

The wait was going to be long…

**Chizuru**

Chizuru couldn't help but stare at Lily when they were walking around town. Lily was just a bit taller than Chizuru and her whole body was sleek and slender. And there was the fact that she was more beautiful than any other woman Chizuru had ever laid her eyes on. There were those supermodels in magazines and people in the adult entertainment industry that were beautiful for a living, but there was something… ethereal in Lily's appearance that caused her heart to skip a beat every time Lily flashed a smile in her direction. She was like an –

"What is that?" Lily suddenly said and pointed her slender finger across the street. Chizuru followed her finger and noticed that she was pointing at a shaved ice stand. Oh, this is perfect…

"That's a shaved ice stand. Don't you have shaved ice in your country?" Chizuru asked. Lily tapped her bottom lip with her index finger and turned her eyes towards the sky. That was another thing about her that had caught Chizuru's attention. Her eyes looked like they were glowing ever so slightly. It must have been the way the blinding white of her clothes contrasted those deep blue eyes.

"We do have ice cream, but… I think it's too cold for something like shaved ice to prosper, but I still would like to try some…" Lilith said and then turned her eyes to Chizuru's. Chizuru took this opportunity to stare into those beautiful blue eyes. Lilith stepped in closer to her and then gave her a little smile.

"I don't have any money on me, so if you could be so kind and offer me a serving of this shaved ice, as you called it?" Lily said in a playful tone that caused Chizuru's imagination to run rampart. Chizuru nodded and then stumbled towards the stand with shaky legs. Calm down, calm down! It was not like she was hinting towards anything; it's just your imagination. Chizuru walked up to the salesman and ordered two cones of shaved ice. She took the cones and then walked over towards Lily. She thought she noticed her eyes travel somewhere else than the cones or her eyes. Was she checking her out? No, it's your wishful thinking again. There's no way that someone like her would be interested in –

"Are you okay, Chizuru? You seem a bit down." Lily said and snapped her out of her thoughts. Chizuru just blushed and handed the cone of shaved ice to Lily. Lily took the shaved the offered cone and kissed Chizuru on the cheek while saying a quick thank you. Chizuru could feel her hair brush her cheek and smell her perfume.

Chizuru's mind was very close to overheating.

"Hey, what do you say we go for a walk in that park over there, Chizuru?" Lily said like nothing had happened. Chizuru had actually forgotten that she was a foreigner for a minute; she was speaking Japanese so fluidly. It wasn't considered strange for people to kiss each on the cheek when meeting, she knew that it was a custom in some western cultures, but did they really do that for thanks? Lily started walking towards the park while gulping down the shaved ice.

"Hey, this shaved ice is pretty good…" Lily noticed that Chizuru wasn't following her and turned around. "Eh? Are you coming, Chizuru?" Chizuru snapped out of her fantasies and hurried over to Lily.

"Sure, it's a nice day for a walk!" Chizuru said a little louder than she intended. Lily just kept on eating the shaved ice with a happy smile on her face and walking along with Chizuru. Chizuru thought that the silence was getting uncomfortable, but she couldn't think of anything to say. Well, she could think of things to say, but just somehow didn't have the courage to start a conversation. She looked over to Lily and saw that she was not even the slightest bit bothered by the awkward silence. She had already eaten half of her shaved ice and showed no signs of stopping.

"If you eat it that fast you'll get a headache…" Chizuru said and took the first mouthful out of her shaved ice. Lily stopped gobbling down the shaved ice and looked at her suspiciously. She narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer.

"You're lying, are you not?" Lily said and smiled at her. Chizuru stumbled back and babbled on about that she was saying the truth.

"No, I'm telling the truth, I really am!" Chizuru hurried to answer. She felt like she was redder than a tomato right now. Lily took another moutfull of her shaved ice and swallowed it down with a rebellious look on her face and then tapped Chizuru's nose with the plastic spoon.

"But I have not gotten a headache, so you must be lying, yes? I am right, yes." Lily had a very confident tone in her voice and she started walking and eating her shaved ice. She did eat it slower than before though. Chizuru decided to drop the subject; maybe some people just didn't get headaches. She had hinted that she was from a cold country; she might have a resistance or something. Yeah… which country was that again?

**Lilith**

"Where are you from?" The red haired girl named Chizuru asked Lilith, aka Lily. Lily had hoped to be able to avoid that question. She didn't want to have to make up her alias right this minute. She had always used the name Lily, but she had changed her place of origins and such repeatedly. It was more fun that way, but now she would have to make her place of origin up to not frighten this girl away. What could it be…? She had mentioned that it was cold by a whim, so it would have to be up north…

"Oh, didn't I tell you, sorry about that, Chizuru. I'm from up north… from Finland to be exact." Lilith said. Yes, Finnish people were usually blond, blue-eyed and taller than Japanese people, so it was plausible. Lilith could also speak a few sentences of Finnish, so that was also a factor. Chizuru stared at her in surprise.

"How come can you speak Japanese so fluidly? Do you have relatives in Japan?" Chizuru asked and took a spoonful of her shaved ice, and she had considerably more left than Lilith did. She was talkative now, wasn't she? Lilith looked over to the direction of their destination and calculated that she couldn't dodge the question without being impolite.

"Yes, I have a couple of cousins living here, from my mother's side mostly. Oh, look, a bench! I'm beat, let's sit down!" Lilith knew that she was acting out of character and it should be obvious she was avoiding further questions, but when she grabbed the girls hand and ran over to the bench shadowed by low hanging trees the turmoil of feelings she felt from the girl was enough to stop her from thinking about anything and everything. Was this girl really so enchanted by me? I haven't even used any charms on her, yet. It was kind of pathetic that someone could be this enthralled by a complete stranger, but it was also flattering that she thought of her as that beautiful. Lilith did know that she was the image of beauty, of course, but it didn't hurt to be reminded about it once in a while. Lilith sat down on the bench and pulled the girl down to sit right next to her.

"It is nice to let your mind just relax once in a while, don't you agree?" Lilith said and took great pleasure in how tense she was to be so close to her. She had not seen a redder face.

"Y – yeah, I guess…" Chizuru stuttered and avoided eye contact. How cute, the girl was actually shivering. That made her spill some of the already melting shaved ice on her bare thigh and wince from the cold. Lilith saw a chance to excite the girl a little more. Chizuru was just about to swipe the ice off her thigh with her free hand when Lilith grabbed her wrist.

"Don't waste it! I'll get it." Lilith said and started to pick the small pieces of ice from Chizuru's thigh, making sure to move the remaining ice a little further up her thigh. She heard how the girl gasped and then started to breathe heavily. Lilith made small circles with the last piece of ice and the girl moaned ever so slightly. Lilith had her hand practically inside Chizuru's skirt and she had been leaning over to her lap to get the ice. Lilith could hear how the girl's heart was beating against her chest. This was as far as she could take this little girl without causing her an arrhythmia. Well, it would have to suffice.

**Chizuru**

Lily raised her head up to eye-level and then looked right into Chizuru's eyes. Every muscle in Chizuru's body was tense and her head was spinning. Was this… this _supermodel _coming on to her? Maybe it was the school uniform, or the glasses, but whatever it was she sure hoped this wasn't a dream. She knew that her palms were sweating, her breathing was ragged and Lily's hand was on her thing and her face was only mere inches away, but she had had dozens of dreams just like this one. This really felt like reality, she never was this nervous in those kinds of dreams. Lily smiled warmly and leaned in until their noses were almost touching. Chizuru's heart ached from the things it had been put through during the last couple of minutes, but it still sped up after hearing what Lily said next.

"I am your first, am I not?" Lily whispered softly and Chizuru felt her breath tickling her face. She gasped and inhaled the scent of Lily's perfume, which didn't help to calm her down one bit. There was a lump in her throat and she was unable to get a word out of her mouth, but she was able to nod her head. She felt how sweat drops trickled down her temples.

"Cute…" Lilith said and then closed in the gap between them, tilting her head slightly to avoid their noses from colliding. Lily's lips felt incredibly soft and warm against hers and she teased Chizuru by taking her bottom lip between hers and then touching it slightly with her tongue. Lilith was not even trying to put the tongue in her mouth, even though it was obvious she would have nothing against it. Chizuru's hands had risen up to caress Lily's back the moment their lips met. She might be unable of coherent thoughts, but her instincts didn't fail her.

**Lilith**

The girl was getting grabby… Well, it was okay. I have been toying with her for a while so she can get a little hands-on if she feels like it. It's only fair and it's not like it doesn't feel nice. It has been a while from the time I done anything like this.

But by the time Chizuru mover hands over to her chest Lilith decided that she had had her fun and moved her mouth to cover Chizuru's. Chizuru's eager tongue rushed in and Lilith answered to the kiss and closed her eyes. She concentrated on feeling the raging emotions inside this girl…

**Chizuru**

My gods, she is so warm and soft! I feel like I'm on fire! I never could believe those romance novels where they hoped that some moment would never end. I mean, how someone could be happy living one moment all over again to infinity and beyond. It was bound to get a little tiring after a couple of years.

Now she knew what they meant with that. There was no way that she could ever get tired of this feeling burning inside her chest and that made her body feel as light as a feather. She truly hoped that this moment would last forever. Lily's hands moved to go through her hair and hold her head against hers. Chizuru tried to follow her example, but noticed that it was surprisingly hard to lift her hands to go through Lily's silky hair. Her body felt surprisingly tired now that she paid attention to it. It was a weird feeling: Like her body was made out of feather light lead. When was the last time when she took a breath, maybe this was just because of lack of oxygen?

Chizuru tried to pushing her away gently to signal for her to break the kiss, but Lily kept Chizuru's head in place with her hands. Chizuru tried a couple of more times, but eventually gave in and allowed the heavenly kiss to continue, she would die happy anyway.

When Chizuru felt her eyelids started to feel unresistingly heavy, then Lily broke the kiss and Chizuru thought that she saw something like a stream of light flowing into Lily's mouth. Chizuru's lips curved into a blissful smile and then she felt the surprisingly comfortable bench on the back of her head.

**Lilith**

Lilith stood up from the bench and smacked her lips a couple of times. This girl had been surprisingly filling. Who would have thought that someone so young could be so passionate? The world had definitely changed. In the old days whenever she found a girl with preferences similar to this girl, they were always desperately trying to deny it and it took forever to get them to a situation like this. Her main source of substance was of course men, but women had an irresistible flavor that Lilith just couldn't live without.

Lilith had always been envious of Bezanthume's preferences. He had it easy: He could just snatch some girl walking home alone and have his fill, but for Lilith to satisfy her appetite she had to work for every scrap. Innocence was something that everyone had to begin with and that could only fade away, but a thing like Lust was something that had to be developed and that was short-lived.

Lust, desire, passion, whatever you call it, but it was always behind a lot of work. Lilith was satisfied with her meal and started to walk away when she suddenly turned back after taking only about ten steps.

"Geez, I can't leave it like this. What was I thinking?" Lilith muttered when she walked up to Chizuru's unconscious body and leaned over to her. Then she walked away again with the almost untouched cone of melting shaved ice Chizuru hadn't had the chance to eat.

"This stuff is delicious… and it seems to help with my throat as well…" Lilith said as she ate the flavoured ice before it completely melted.

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**How was that, huh? Please tell me if I got the whole make out scene right. Reviews are greatly appreciated by the way, even flames.**

**Crazy Laughter (is signing out)**


	7. Déjá vu

**So, first of all: A big thank you goes to Flower Miko for helping me come up with some ideas concerning this chapter. Namely, Chizuru's mom and some other things.**

**So, I hope you enjoy the story and leave a review, but his is a free world, so I can't force you. At least enjoy this chapter if nothing else.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

**Déjà vu**

"I'm telling you I'm fine…"

Blood…

"Don't try to get up, Yuzu, just let the doctors take care of you!"

This scene needs blood…

"But I have to make dinner…"

It doesn't have to blood; just something even a little more interesting than this…

"Get back on the bed, Yuzu!" Kurosaki Ichigo yelled from the corner he was brooding in. Bezanthume turned to Kurosaki Ichigo in hopes that he would start a family fight and make his boredom stop, but he just turned his eyes away and kept on brooding. He sighed and turned to see Yuzu lying herself back down on the bed, mumbling that she was fine. He had suspected that the time he would spend with the Kurosaki family waiting for Kuchiki Rukia to appear would feel longer than it was, but now his time spent trapped in the orb felt short in comparison.

They were just so utterly boring! Caring for each other, crying, hugging, brooding and trying to think who attacked Yuzu. They were just so annoyingly… human, that it made Bezanthume's blood boil! If the owl-eyed excuse of a shinigami didn't show up in an hour he was going to… He sighed and leaned himself against the wall next to Kurosaki Ichigo. He glanced over to his direction, but just dismissed it as a tremor from someone dropping something heavy nearby. The boy was a purebred idiot.

He couldn't kill anyone without ending up to turn back time again. Bezanthume wallowed in the agony this realization brought him, as it was more pleasant than watching the Kurosaki family. He was able to stay deep in his silent misery for about ten minutes and then he saw the light he had been waiting for: Kuchiki Rukia had just entered the hospital.

"**Finally!" **Bezanthume roared and caused the room shake for just a second before he phased through the floor and headed for Kuchiki Rukia's light. He landed on the same plane with her and then opened his eyes to see a very lost looking Kuchiki Rukia in the lobby of the hospital. She was a shinigami and thus knew nothing about the dynamics of a modern hospital. She was bound to ask someone where the Kurosaki family was and then Bezanthume would be stuck with those humans again.

So, what could he do to stop her? Just when Bezanthume was thinking about this every muscle of Kuchiki Rukia's body stiffened and her eyes grew wide as saucers. She really did look like a fucking owl. Bezanthume had been so excited about getting away from the Kurosaki's that he had forgotten that this Kuchiki Rukia was able to see him. Now his choices were even more limited, but now the boring ones were also out of the question. There was no way that she would go to the Kurosaki's when the shadow she had seen in school was in the hospital. She just wouldn't expose them to that kind of danger.

Bezanthume pulled his hood up and walked right in front of Kuchiki Rukia. He saw how her eyes darted around the lobby of the hospital. Impressive, she was calmly calculating her chances even in this situation. She must have thought that it was too crowded for her to reveal her true identity, since she only looked up to his eyes. Kuchiki Rukia barely reached his waist, so it was like a four-year old looking up to his father. The mental image made Bezanthume even more determined not to go back to the Kurosaki's. Bezanthume drew several runes and other symbols in the air between before talking.

"**Let's get out of here, shall we?" **Bezanthume said politely and then motioned towards the doors of the hospital. Kuchiki Rukia's body listened to his request and granted it, but by the look in her eyes it seemed like the mind wasn't agreeing with it. Kuchiki Rukia walked through the doors of the hospital with Bezanthume walking right on her heels. He directed her to walk across the street and then made her stop by grabbing her shoulder.

"**Whatever you use to get out of that faux body, please use it now." **Bezanthume said and patted her cheek. Kuchiki Rukia flinched back from the touch and looked horrified to see her hand reaching down to her pocket and taking out the soul candy dispenser. Bezanthume watched with a great deal of amusement how Kuchiki Rukia tried to keep her mouth shut to stop the candy from getting into her system and causing her to be even more vulnerable in front of a seemingly hostile figure. She was still recovering from the damage the hollow had caused her and from Kurosaki Ichigo stealing her powers after all. She had more power in her gigai, she regrettably had to admit, or at least she was not injured.

Kuchiki Rukia tried to cover her mouth with her free hand, but Bezanthume simply grabbed her wrist to stop her and the gikon pill landed on her tongue. She really did look like she was terrified by the situation she was in. Bezanthume chuckled and closed her jaw gently with his free hand and then ordered for her body to swallow the greenish pill. He heard a gulp from Kuchiki Rukia's throat and then saw her soul jump out of the faux body with a spark of something like electricity. Kuchiki Rukia tried to use the supposed surprise from this to use demon arts on him, but Bezanthume stepped over to her and grabbed her wrists before she was able to do anything. Then he spread his wings and launched off to the sky. Kuchiki Rukia yelped from the sudden speed she was travelling in and decided against using kido against Bezanthume, just like he hoped she would. He slung her small body on his forearm and then took a heading towards the park.

Instead of landing he retracted his wings in mid-air and allowed for himself to freefall to the ground. Kuchiki Rukia screamed with tears in her eyes when the ground rushed in towards her. It was refreshing to see someone other from Inoue Orihime freak out because of him. All this sneaking around was getting on his nerves. Kuchiki Rukia kept on screaming while Bezanthume braced himself for the impact.

The impact would have been bone shattering if Bezanthume would have been a mere human, but his body absorbed the shock with no effort and he just bent his knees at the moment of impact and left a small crater behind him. Kuchiki Rukia had stopped screaming, but only because the impact had knocked the wind out of her. Bezanthume took the chance to use a spell to change some of the soil under them into ropes for Rukia. He didn't want her running and making this even more bothersome than it already was. Bezanthume started to tie her up while she was still immobile and trying to catch her breath. He bound her hands behind her back in such a way that her elbows were bound together along with her wrists and then cut the rope with his claws and used the rest to tie her neck and her ankles together, so that she could only sit with her knees close to her chest. He carried her over to a nearby tree and set her to lean against the trunk of the tree. Then he jumped up into the tree and sat on a strong branch, it was a big tree.

"What are you? You can't be a simple hollow, since you had the mental capacity to tie me up. Are you a shinigami? Did they send you to get me?" Kuchiki Rukia asked, glancing around to see where he was. Apparently she had not seen him jumping up into the tree. For some reason he felt tempted to answer her question. He didn't want to be associated with shinigamis. He made a couple of hand gestures to cast a spell that would make his speech audible to her ears.

"**No" **Bezanthume simply answered her last two questions. This caused Kuchiki Rukia to flinch and look up in surprise. Had she even expected for him to speak, or even be able of speech? Did she start talking just to determine his location? Smart.

"Then why are you after me?" Kuchiki Rukia asked while looking up into the tree. Bezanthume assumed that she didn't know his exact position from the way her eyes darted around the branches of the tree. Should he say anything more? What else could he do? It would be as boring as heaven if he didn't find something to do. He could take a nap, or booby trap the surrounding area with spells, but he just didn't feel like it, too much work. So, what could he answer to Kuchiki Rukia? The truth was out of the question, but on another thought, this could help his cause. Simply telling her that Aizen was the one that was actually after her life was out of the question as well, she would never believe it.

"**There is something sewn within your soul that my master wishes to obtain." **Bezanthume said and then wondered how he was going to be able to hint towards Aizen. Bezanthume noticed that there was nothing he could say that wouldn't look like he was setting Aizen up.

"Hi there, Benny-chan!" Lilith screamed right into his ear. That caused Bezanthume to flinch back, loose his balance and fall to the ground with a mighty crash. He looked up to Lilith's laughing face standing on the branch he had just been sitting on.

"**You certainly seem cheery… Why is that?" **Bezanthume asked and dusted himself off. It was rare that he had to look up to talk to anyone and he heard his neck creak. He should remember to stretch his neck once in a while…

"I had a bite to eat, that's all. Who's this? I didn't know you were into bondage…" Lilith said and looked down to Rukia with curiosity shining in her eyes. Bezanthume also looked down to Rukia and noticed that she was looking straight at him again. He made a quick hand gesture to break the spell that allowed her to hear his speech.

"**This is the urgent matter concerning my contract I mentioned earlier. If I can stop her from getting into the wrong hands, then I should be able to fulfill my contract, to some extent at least. I'll have to improvise the rest." **Bezanthume said. He was not going to start and explain the whole situation to Lilith. Lilith curved an eyebrow and jumped down from the tree. She walked over to Kuchiki Rukia and then bent over to look at Rukia straight in the eyes. Kuchiki Rukia showed no signs of seeing that there was an angelic blond woman only mere inches away from her face, so Bezanthume assumed that Lilith had remembered to turn back invisible after her little snack. She had a tendency to forget that…

It seemed like pieces of his memory were already coming back. Bezanthume tried to grab onto the memories that were now floating in the forefront of his mind and was able to memorize many little details about Lilith, but it still felt that most of the information that had been just in his grasp sunk back into the depths of his mind. Well, he'll get to them eventually.

"**Who was the victim this time, Lilith?" **Bezanthume asked, remembering her preference and the way she went about it. She thought that interrupting lovers was appalling, so she went around exiting people to the point that they were going to burst and then sucked out their passion through their mouths.

"Just some girl named Chizuru. She's sleeping it off on a bench over there. Don't worry, I didn't kill her." Lilith said and waved it off as insignificant. She was having a great time blowing into Kuchiki Rukia's ear and watching how she freaked out. Something in what Lilith just said was bothering him for some reason…

"**Did you just say Chizuru?"** Bezanthume asked. Lilith kept on playing with her new toy called Kuchiki Rukia and not listening to Bezanthume.

"**Lilith!"** Bezanthume roared. Lilith raised her head and focused her eyes on Bezanthume. She didn't seem intimidated by an eight feet tall demon shouting at her.

"What is it, Bezanthume? Don't tell me you're actually worried about the life of a single human?" Lilith shot back, clearly irritated that Bezanthume interrupted her fun. Kuchiki Rukia's eyes were darting around trying to find the culprit. She was going to be a nervous wreck any minute now.

"**Did this 'Chizuru' have red hair and glasses?" **Bezanthume asked and directed a murderous look at Lilith to suppress any desire to smart ass answers. Lilith took the hint.

"Yes, and she was wearing the same kind of uniform that Contractor of yours has. Is there a problem?" Lilith said and walked over to Bezanthume. Bezanthume growled at her and then turned his eyes away. Lilith decided that it would be wise to have a couple of feet between then right now and took a couple of steps back.

"**And you left her on a bench somewhere… Keep an eye on her, will ya! I'll be back as soon as possible." **Bezanthume said and then launched off to the sky, leaving Kuchiki Rukia to be toyed with by Lilith. He closed his eyes and luckily saw Chizuru's slightly dimmed light right away. He stopped in the air, memorized the position and distance of the light and then opened his eyes and saw a bench almost hidden by low hanging trees and bushes. Damn that retarded fucking angel. If she leaves her in a place like that she's going to get raped and mugged for sure, possibly even murdered.

He flew down to her and then started to hurriedly cast the spell he had used earlier on Kurosaki Yuzu. The required symbols and words were fresh in his memory and he was sure that he got it right. He placed his right index finger right between her eyes and saw her whole body go limp.

"**Where do you live? Show me." **Bezanthume said in a low voice, trying not to wake her and then felt pictures and thoughts flow into his mind through the spell's power. He saw her house, her parents, the street sign, the street she lived on, her walk to school… Good, that he could use, he couldn't read the street signs and this town was completely unfamiliar to him, but he thought that he would be able to find her house without a problem, now that he had a solid point to start from. He would just fly to the school and then trace her steps from there.

He raised Chizuru in his arms and then jumped up and took a heading towards the school.

**Ichigo**

Ichigo watched his family fuss over Yuzu while he stayed in the corner and beat himself up for not being there to protect her from whatever did this. There was no doubt in his mind that this was caused by something like a hollow, even though it didn't look like it had been traditional hollow that attacked his sister he was more than sure that it definitely was something from _her _world. A vampire or something, but he just hoped that he could be tearing that thing to pieces by now, but Rukia had failed to make an appearance. She should have enough brains to figure out that they were at the hospital after seeing that there was no one in his house and that there was a huge hole in the ceiling. And he had left her a note to make this clear, so what the hell was taking her so long? Did she get lost or something?

"Psst… Ichigo…" Ichigo turned his head towards the voice and saw Rukia peeking inside the room and motioning for him to come outside. Ichigo glanced over to the rest of his family. They were all so concentrated on Yuzu that they wouldn't notice if he stepped out for a second. He walked over to the door and then stepped out in the hall.

"What took you so long? Pop me out of my body and I'll go and find the thing that did this to Yuzu." Ichigo said in hushed voice. He didn't want to alert his family. There were bound to be some embarrassing question about Rukia being here.

"Shut up! Rukia-sama was just kidnapped and if you don't do exactly as I tell you I will castrate you!" Rukia yelled at him and started dragging him along the corridor. Ichigo was going over what Rukia had just said and found that none of it made sense.

"Wait a minute! If Rukia was kidnapped, then who the hell are you?" Ichigo yelled back and shook her hand away. Rukia turned to him with a murderous look in her eyes. He thought he saw fangs peeking out of her mouth, but that was just a hallucination caused by the promise of violence in her eyes. He gulped, hard.

"I'm the gikon pill. I am designed to keep Rukia-sama's gigai safe and to see to her own safety if the need arises, and guess what; she's in no condition to fight right now!" Rukia screamed and then grabbed his arm again and dragged her to the elevators. She growled to stop anyone else from getting into the elevator and then pressed the button for the lobby.

It was the most uncomfortable minutes of his life. Rukia kept on glaring at him and muttering threats under her breath. No, she was not Rukia, this was the gikon pill. He knew how different gikon pills could be from the real owner of the body, just look at Kon. Ichigo and Kon were like night and day and still Kon was the one inhabiting his body at times.

The doors of the elevator opened and Rukia's gigai ran out and told him to follow. They ran out through the doors of the hospital and then took a heading towards the park.

"I saw them land somewhere in the park. Follow me and I'll pop you out somewhere a little more secluded!" Rukia's gigai yelled at him and then jumped over the fence of the park. Ichigo followed her without complaining. The thing that kidnapped Rukia might not be the same thing that attacked his sister, but it was as good of a let out for his frustration as any other.

**Bezanthume**

Is this it? Bezanthume went over the turns and the landmarks he had passed and came to the conclusion that this was the girl's house. He had ran the way in order for it to be easier to follow the path in her memories and it had took him a little longer than he felt comfortable. Leaving someone alone with Lilith for too long had some grave consequences. He should take care of this quickly, but he had no idea where her room was and he couldn't turn her invisible without carving runes and symbols on her body. Guess there was no going around it…

Bezanthume turned himself to be visible to the human eye and walked up to the door of the house. Just before he was about to knock on the door he realized that he looked as much of a demon as possible. He should do something about that. He set Chizuru down on the ground and then lowered his hood. He knew that his face looked human enough but his eye color was not human. That could be covered with a simple spell. And then there were his claws… Well, he'll wear his gloves. Bezanthume cast the spell to change his eye color and then readjusted his gloves to somewhat conceal his claws. This would have to suffice; it was not like he was going to spend that much time in there for them to make any close observations. He knocked on the door three times, careful not to break it and then picked Chizuru back up on his arms. She mumbled something in her sleep and shifted a little. Good, that meant she was not in a coma…

"Yes, who – Chizuru!" A middle aged woman screamed as she opened the door and saw Chizuru in Bezanthume's arms. She was obviously Chizuru's mother, the similarity was almost miraculous. She had red hair and glasses that were almost like her daughter's, but only a different color. The other things that set the two apart were of course the delicate wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, her clothing and her more mature physique. In other words: her bust. She might have not rivaled Inoue Orihime, but still she was definitely larger than her daughter.

"**Even…" **Bezanthume said before he noticed Chizuru's mother jump in surprise from hearing his voice. Yes, he had forgotten to change his voice, but a quick whispered spell took care of that. Bezanthume coughed and then started again.

"Sorry, Ma'am, my throat is a little sore. Judging from your reaction, this indeed is your daughter. Can I come in and set her down somewhere, or would you be more comfortable if I left her in your loving care?" Bezanthume said politely and offered Chizuru to the woman. He was hoping that she would just take the girl so that he could be on his way. Bezanthume should have known that he would have no such luck.

"Oh, please come in. You can set her down on the sofa over there. Would you like something for your throat? I have some special tea that could help." The woman babbled on. She was surprisingly cheery, considering the fact that her daughter was unconscious in a stranger's arms. Bezanthume bent his head to step through that threshold and then walked into what looked like a living room and set Chizuru down on one of the sofas.

"I am sorry, ma'am, but I really should be going now…" Bezanthume tried to say but the woman pretended not to hear him.

"Wonderful! The tea will be ready in a minute, just take a seat while you wait." Chizuru's mother chirped merrily and ran over to the kitchen. What was making her so cheery? The situation didn't seem too amusing. Bezanthume sat down on another sofa and closed his eyes to see what exactly was so wonderful about the situation in the woman's perspective. The volume of the thought playing over and over in the woman's mind surprised him.

_My little girl has a boyfriend! My little Chizuru has a BOYfriend! La la laa! And quite a catch at that!_

Bezanthume could hear the woman humming along with the improvised song playing in her head. Bezanthume sighed deeply and buried his face in his hands. He could not understand humans; he really could not comprehend them at all. He should leave before she starts asking questions.

Bezanthume was about to turn himself back invisible and fly back to the park when Chizuru's mother walked in with a tray. Talk about timing… The tray had two cups, an assortment of biscuits and a teapot on it. So, she was not joking about the tea. She set the tray on the coffee table and proceeded to pour tea in both of the cups.

"I really should be going now, ma'am. I have an urgent appointment…" Bezanthume said and tried to stand up, but the woman pushed a tea cup in his hand and caused him to sit back down. Was this woman deaf, or just suicidal?

"Oh, would you stop with the Ma'am already? You're embarrassing me. Just call me Chiyo." Chizuru's mother said and blushed slightly. She sat down next to him on the sofa Yes, she is just suicidal. Would Inoue Orihime know if he were to kill this woman? Probably, since Chizuru was in her class and it's not like the death of her mother would stay a secret. Bezanthume forced a slight smile on his lips and then turned his eyes to "Chiyo".

"Chiyo, I am grateful for your kindness, but I really do have to go." Bezanthume said in a calm voice and stood up from the sofa. He drank the steaming hot tea down in one gulp and set the empty cup back on the tray.

"Thanks for the tea" Bezanthume said and walked out of the house before the woman could even open her mouth. When he thought that she couldn't see him anymore he turned back invisible and spread his wings. Humans were annoying beyond any limit.

He launched up into the sky while Honshou Chiyo wondered where he could have disappeared so suddenly. He was just there a second ago. Eventually she closed the door and went to take care of her daughter.

**Lilith**

Toying with Rukia lost its novelty when she started to try and bite Lilith's nose off every time she blew in her ear. Some people just can't take a joke. Lilith pondered over the idea of giving the girl a couple of hallucinations straight from her worst nightmares, but eventually decided against it. She didn't know the exact way Bezanthume needed her to fulfill his contract and she definitely didn't want to make him angry. Bezanthume was harmless most of the time, but if you happened to anger him, really anger him, he would find the slowest and most painful way to kill you and then do it without a moment of hesitation. He was a demon after all, an extraordinary kind demon, but still a demon.

Right now Lilith was stargazing about ten feet away from the tree which Rukia was placed under. Lilith was lying on her back with her hands behind her head. She had retracted her wings to lie more comfortably on the grass and savored the feeling of grass on her back. She knew it was going to get uncomfortable after a while, but right now the blades of grass felt nice and comfortable. It was nostalgic, it had been a long while since she done this. It was good to stop and smell the roses once in a while, or look at the stars, whatever worked. Lilith sighed and closed her eyes in relaxation. It was a nice and warm night and she felt like taking a small nap. Lilith closed her eyes and just a couple of seconds after that she heard someone moving around where Rukia was tied up. Couldn't she get one moment of rest? Lilith sighed again and saw two men in strange outfits and carrying swords standing in front of Rukia.

"We are here to get you… Who did this?" The tattooed red haired man asked Rukia as the other one just nonchalantly stood there with his eyes closed. He was kind of cute actually, but he looked rather cold-blooded. He also somehow reminded her of Bezanthume. She wasn't sure how.

"Watch out! I think it's still around!" Rukia screamed frantically. What had Bezanthume done for her to be so frightened of him? Lilith walked right behind the two men who had appeared and blew in the ear of the guy who had his eyes closed. Sure, he looked cool and distant with his eyes closed, but it's just stupid to have them closed when someone tells you there's something around. He moved incredibly fast and struck out with his sword. If Lilith wouldn't have seen his intentions in his mind a fraction of a second before he moved, well, she would have been beheaded. She didn't want that.

"Taichou, what are you doing?" The red haired guy asked, probably wondering why in god's name this guy was fighting with thin air. Lilith hurried to get a definite distance between them and then checked if her hair was okay. It felt like his blade connected with something. The aristocratic looking guy tilted his head with his eyes still closed and then took a couple of steps towards Lilith. Lilith's eyes grew wide as Rukia's. This guy was unreal! He was actually tracking her movements from the sound her feet made when she walked. Why wasn't Bezanthume here when he was needed? Lilith was not going to fight this guy, the other one looked simple enough to manipulate.

"There is something here… and it has luminescent blond hair." The aristocratic looking guy said, holding a lock of Lilith's hair between his fingers. No way! My hair! My precious hair! Oh, you're _so_ dead buddy… I should at least dig up their names, but I think my personal safety comes first. Lilith spread her wings and rose up into the air and then hovered in place above three in hopes of its rustling covering any noise she made. Then she looked a little deeper into these guys' minds.

So, the aristocratic looking guy was Kuchiki Byakyua, a unimaginably powerful captain of something called the 13 protection squads and the other guy was Abarai Renji, his subordinate, a vice captain. There was also the small fact that this Kuchiki Rukia was his adopted sister… and now they were here to take her to be executed…

Now that's screwed up.

Lilith twirled a lock of her hair around her finger and tried to come up with a strategy for keeping the owl-eyed girl here long enough for Bezanthume to come back. Should she pit them against each other? Would that other guy have a chance against that Byakyua. He didn't seem to think so. What could she do? She could have Byakyua see his worst or best dreams come true, but there was a chance that he would just close his eyes and come at her with a vengeance. There seemed to be no other chance than to make Abarai Renji fight Kuchiki Byakyua. She would just have to hope that the red haired guy would at least work as a distraction.

Lilith was just making her way to manipulate Renji when an orange haired boy distracted her by appearing right in front of Rukia. He had his huge ass sword drawn and pointed towards the guy that dared to cut Lilith's hair and the other one in a shinigami uniform and he had furious look in his eyes.

"Are you the guys who kidnapped Rukia? I won't let you take her." Kurosaki Ichigo said in a confident tone. The boy was a genuine idiot, but he sure had good timing, maybe this boy could hold them here long enough and if he couldn't do it by his own power, then Lilith could give the boy a little divine assistance.

**Ichigo**

"The thing that kidnapped Rukia-sama was invisible, you limp dick bastard!" The gikon pill inside Rukia's gigai yelled to Ichigo. It ran over to Rukia and started to untie her from the ropes. Ichigo took another glance at the two men in front of him and noticed their uniforms and the swords they were carrying.

"You're shinigami… What are your intentions with Rukia?" Ichigo asked, not lowering his sword one bit. He was still angry about what happened to his sister and Rukia, but the thing responsible didn't seem to be here. These guys could be good to vent his anger on. He needed a fight right now. The red haired shinigami glanced over to the other on in a white coat and with a ridiculous hair style and then spoke to him very arrogantly.

"We're here to take Rukia back to Soul Society, to be executed for her crimes." The red haired shinigami said and grabbed the hilt of his zanpakuto. Ichigo smirked, that sounded like a valid enough excuse. Ichigo put his other hand on his zanpakuto and then charged at the red haired guy. The red haired guy unsheathed his sword and took a serious expression.

"So you're the guy that stole Rukia's powers… I'll definitely kill you!" He shouted before clashing swords with Ichigo. Ichigo gritted his teeth and was able to push the red haired guy away and then tried to slash him with his zanpakuto, but he was able to parry it with his own zanpakuto before the hit landed. Ichigo kept pressing on with all the hatred giving him a momentary adrenaline rush. This red haired guy still had that condescending look in his eyes when he parried his swings over and over. He didn't even try to dodge them. He kept the distance between them the same the whole time by moving around, but always stayed right in front of him.

He was playing with him. This thought gave his swing an extra boost that caused the guy to stumble back again. This time he was not able to parry the slash with his zanpakuto and Ichigo was able to cut a wound into his right arm, right under the shoulder.

"You won't be taking her anywhere!" Ichigo yelled, still feeling the effects of his adrenaline rush. Maybe it caused him to let down his guard, or maybe the guy with the ridiculous hair style really was that fast, but still he noticed that there was someone standing behind him when it was too late for him to do anything. He was only able to flex his muscles and turn his eyes behind him before he was run through by Kuchiki Byakyua's sword two times.

"I've had enough of this nonsense. There are strange forces at work here and we have no time to concern our self with this kind of weakling." He said coldly and turned to Rukia without sparing Ichigo another glance. Ichigo tried to stay on his legs, but all strength escaped his body and he crashed face first on the grass. He could feel his blood warming the grass under him and soiling his clothes.

This was bad. He wasn't sure if he could get up anymore.

**Lilith**

Damn, that kid was an utter weakling after all that bravado. Even when she was able to cause Renji to trip over his own feet he was unable to finish the fight. This was really not going according to plan. The girl was almost free from the ropes and her main pawn had been struck down and the secondary one was already weakened by the fallen pawn.

Fuck! Why was everything going so wrong? There was nothing she could have done to stop the kid from being stabbed. The aristocratic guy was just simply too fast for her to do anything. If things kept on going the way they were now, then she would be forced to try and attack Byakyua herself. She hated risking her own well being and she had some issues about being stabbed in the chest with swords. She hadn't had time to recover from the last time, for god's sakes!

"Ichigo!" The big eyed girl screamed and tried to run over to his still form. She was finally free from the ropes and they turned back into dust right after the other girl that looked exactly like her was able to undo Bezanthume's knots. What the hell was keeping Bezanthume anyway? Was he drinking tea with Chizuru or something?

The guy named Renji hurried to run over to the girl and slam him back against the tree. The girl winced as her unhealed wounds hit the rough bark of the tree. Lilith was trying to think of what to do in a situation like this. They seemed to be intending to take this Rukia girl away to somewhere that sounded like an alternate dimension or something.

"Renji, let go! Ichigo is – " Rukia was able to yell out before Renji interrupted her.

"What the hell are you talking about? The brat's dead, face it already! Just touching him now will add an extra 20 years into your sentence! What's the reason in worsening your crimes over a dead guy?! Let it go already and come with us quietly!" Abarai Renji yelled at Rukia. Lilith felt like clapping to reward him for his surprising ability in logical reasoning. It was also obvious that he cared for her and it wouldn't take much to drive him into a fight with this Byakyua character, but Lilith sincerely doubted if he had the slightest change against this guy. She would probably have to do it herself if something didn't happen in the next two minutes.

"But _I _involved Ichigo… It's my fault that he's dead! What's so wrong about me running over to him?!" Rukia screamed with tears in her eyes. Lilith hovered closer to her. She loved to see these kinds of love dramas. And somehow she had a feeling that this situation was playing along like a scene from a play or something.

"Even if your crimes may worsen…" The aristocratic guy with the scarf said and then continued after a slight pause "You cannot bear not to go to him?" He held another slight pause "To this _child's _side?" He focused his eyes on the girl and Lilith's eyes automatically followed. This was juicy. They were in love or something then? Interesting…

"Nii-sama…" Rukia whispered emotionally. Byakyua turned his eyes back to the body of Kurosaki Ichigo and then looked back at Rukia.

"I understand, Rukia…" another freaking pause. God, he had an annoying way of talking. "I see. This child does closely resemble _him._" Byakyua said. Lilith was confused. Who did he look like? Why did he understand? Why did they feel a need to say these things when one of them was slowly bleeding to death? The gash in Renji's arm was deeper than it looked. Renji seemed to snap to reality just then and turned to Byakyua.

"We should get going now. We have no business here anymore. We have Rukia and we have taken care of the human that stole her powers." Renji said and slung Rukia over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. Byakyua also seemed to shake himself out of a haze of some sort and nodded his head. He walked to where Rukia and Renji were and drew his sword.

"With my two attacks, I have completely shattered the two vital points of his soul, the chain _link_ and _soul sleep. _That boy will probably die in an hour and even if he lives all of his power will be gone." Byakyua said while staring at his sword for a second. The sword's blade started to glow faintly.

"Taichou… Why did you say that out loud?" Renji asked while giving him an odd look. Even Rukia glanced at him in surprise. Lilith was more than confused now. It was like they were acting out a scene from an play.

"… I do not know…" Byakyua said while stabbing thin air with his sword. To Lilith's great surprise the blade disappeared halfway into the air. It looked like there was something like a part of a faint rainbow where the blade disappeared.

"Unlock" Byakyua said while turning the blade 90 degrees. To Lilith's great shock a white slide door appeared right where Byakyua had stabbed the air. She felt how her jaw was hanging open but she didn't care. Humans have the technology for inter-dimensional travel! My fucking god! Well, technically these were not humans, only their souls, but still! This was just… Not possible!

The two men and their captive walked through the slide doors and into a white light accompanied by black butterflies. The slide doors closed with a melodramatic "thok!" and then disappeared.

Oh yeah, she was supposed to stop them… Oops…

* * *

**Does anyone get the feeling of Déjá vu from a certain scene in this fic? If you do, then your completely right to have one, check episode 17 of the anime for some of the lines. I don't know the exact chapter of the manga nad I am too lazy to check.**

**Review, be so kind, will ya?**


	8. Halloween Special

**Hi, this is a halloween special... and I know it's late. I just thought about doing this yesterday and thought I could get it done in time. This is like an omake and has no relation to the timeline of my story. This is just a scenario I wanted to write and now that I actually did it I'm posting it as an omake chapter. I know it's long for an omake chapter, but I found that it is downright impossible for me to write short chapters.**

**Well, I hope you enjoy. Review and tell me what you think.**

**Halloween Special**

Bezanthume was lounging in the main room of Inoue Orihime's apartment, laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling. He was bored out of his mind. He glanced over to Inoue Orihime washing the dishes in the sink that had piled up for some reason. And it seems like she was just as bored.

"Guys! Guys! Guess what, there's some party happening around here celebrating Halloween!" Lilith shouted with overblown excitement. Yes, she was at least as bored as he was. She just decided to handle it differently.

"**So what? That does not concern us, does it?" **Bezanthume said and then turned his eyes back to looking at the ceiling. Inoue Orihime left the half washed dishes in the sink and peeked out from the kitchen.

"A party? That sounds like fun, doesn't it, Benny?" Orihime said and then ran over to Lilith without waiting for Bezanthume's reply. Since when did Inoue Orihime have the right call him Benny? When did Lilith obtain that right to do so in the first place?

"**Now hold on a minute…" **Bezanthume tried to say, but the two women ignored him.

"But what should we wear? I don't have costumes that would fit me anymore. Should we go out and rent some?" Orihime wondered.

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I can make my own costume and either me or Benny-chan can whip something up for you. We should just figure out what we should dress as." Lilith said and waved her hand dismissively.

"Maybe you should dress an angel?" Orihime suggested to Lilith.

"I already _am _an angel. The whole point of Halloween is posing as something other than you. You could be one though; it's pretty simple to attach a pair of wings on your back…" Lilith said and looked over Orihime from tip to toe, taking measurements.

"A – Attach? No, I think we shouldn't do that." Orihime said fearfully. Lilith looked back up to her eyes in surprise.

"Very well then… Hey, Benny, what do you say, would our Orihime make a believable succubus?" Lilith turned her eyes to Bezanthume. Bezanthume didn't want to have anything to do with this, but when he saw the look of helplessness on Orihime's face he just couldn't help himself.

"**Well… She does have the…" **He gave her chest a meaningful glance** "assets, but she would need to have a tail, a slutty outfit and a pair of leather wings. It's not that simple to grow a pair of those, but I think it's definitely doable."** Bezanthume said while keeping his voice even and serious, like he was actually serious. It was hard not to smile when Orihime blushed crimson red and started panicking.

"Calm down, Orihime! He was just kidding. Now, breathe in through your nose and then exhale through your mouth. That's a good girl. Do you have any suggestions on what we should wear?" Lilith calmed Orihime down and then sat her down on her bed. Orihime looked both of them in the eyes and seemed to be measuring them in her mind.

"Well, there's this show…"

**1 hour later:**

"**I am uncomfortable with this, just so you know" **Bezanthume said and repositioned his tall hat. He had never liked those hats, but he had worn them a number of times. **"Who is this Tykki, anyways?" **Bezanthume asked.

Bezanthume was wearing a vintage charcoal suit with a white collared shirt and a black tie. And then there was the black top hat with a grey band around it. He had tied his hair back with a black ribbon and left some hang loose to frame his face. Orihime had insisted on painting a line of black crosses on his forehead, she had insisted on him following every single detail she remembered.

"Tykki Mikk is a character in one of my favorite shows on TV! He is a part of the Noah clan and one of the bad guys. He has the ability to pass through anything and kills people by ripping people's organs out without leaving a mark on them." Orihime explained enthusiastically.

"Yeah, yeah, but who's Lulubell? Is she also part of the Noah clan?" Lilith asked and tied her hair back with a black ribbon while walking. She had black oval shaped sunglasses and a vintage looking formal looking business suit with a white collared shirt and a black tie.

"Yes, she's really cool, smart and has a maid that polishes her nails. She can also turn into a cat and a lot of other cool stuff." Orihime said happily. They were walking to the grounds of Orihime's school, where the Halloween costume party was being held. They were walking along the wall of her school and were only a hundred meters away from the gate. Bezanthume and Lilith thought about how the characters they were pretending to be fit and didn't fit them and walked to the gate in silence. Orihime looked back and forth between them impatiently.

"And I'm dressed as Lenalee, an exorcist that has a pair of boots that let her soar through the skies and kick some serious butt!" Orihime exclaimed. Inoue Orihime was wearing a black uniform with a complex silver cross on the chest and a very short skirt and to top it off she had a pair of black leather boots with armored knee guards. She had her hair in two pigtails at either side of her head. Bezanthume wondered how long it would take for her to get attacked in a dark alley. It would probably be a matter of mere seconds.

They walked through the gates of the school and noticed that the school courtyard had been decorated with pumpkin lanterns and an occasional skeleton hanging in a tree. It looked like most of the school was there and some other quests of the other students. Bezanthume thought that he saw a glimpse of Kurosaki Yuzu with her sister, but it wasn't actually his business if they were here. It was just that it looked like Kurosaki Yuzu had a pair of cat ears on her head and whiskers painted on her face.

"Inoue?" A orange haired boy wearing a black cape with red lining and a pair of fake fangs peeking out of his mouth said. Kurosaki Ichigo, Bezanthume had never liked him; the boy was just too stupid for his own good.

"Kurosaki-kun, you came here too!" Orihime exclaimed in surprise. She looked over to both Lilith and Bezanthume and seemed to be very close to breaking down in tears. She seemingly hadn't prepared an explanation about the two extraordinary persons with her.

"Evening, it is a pleasure to meet you, Kurosaki-kun. My name is Lily and my stoic friend here is Benjamin, Ben for short." Lilith stepped in and gave Ichigo a smile that blew any doubts he might have had away. Sometimes Lilith's ability to manipulate people even surprised Bezanthume.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, Lily… Ben…" Kurosaki Ichigo said in a rather distant tone. Bezanthume wondered if Lilith had used a charm on the boy, but Kurosaki Ichigo snapped out of his haze too quickly for it to be one of Lilith's charms.

"Do you know these two, Inoue?" Kurosaki Ichigo asked Inoue Orihime. She looked like she was close to telling the truth, so Bezanthume relayed instruction into her mind.

"Uhm… They moved next door yesterday…" Orihime said meekly. Kurosaki Ichigo raised a brow and was about to say something when Bezanthume interrupted him.

"Does that happen to be your father by any chance?" Bezanthume said and pointed towards a man wearing a clown's wig, big red shoes and a doctor's jacket with "KUROSAKI" printed on the back. He was currently trying to climb up into a tree using a fork and a spoon for some reason.

"Damn that old man!" Kurosaki Ichigo growled and hurried to kick the man in the head. Kurosaki Isshin started fighting back and they had gathered quite a crowd by the time Bezanthume lost interest.

He noticed that both Inoue Orihime and Lilith had wandered off somewhere and Bezanthume decided to do the same and find them later. He wandered around the decorated courtyard and gathered a lot of admiring and amazed looks from almost everyone he passed. He decided to play it safe and raised his top hat slightly to the teachers of the school and the classmates of Inoue Orihime. He saw many of the female classmates of Inoue Orihime blush. Being rude rarely got you anything, being intimidating, yes, but not being downright rude.

He walked over to the punch bowl and poured himself a glass. He took a sip and then grimaced. This punch didn't have any of the _punch _it needed.

Well, that was easy to fix. He pulled out a vial of a bright red liquid from his jacket and administered two drops in the bowl and three drops in his own cup. That should give him a pleasant buzz and make the humans drunk. They were so weak…

**30 minutes later:**

Bezanthume counted that at least five people had taken the spiked punch. Those including: Ishida Uryuu (Robin Hood), Asano Keigo (Dog), Honshou Chizuru (Knight), Ochi Misato (a temple maiden) and Lilith. He thought if he should warn Ochi Misato, because she was Inoue Orihime's teacher, but then decided against it. It will be fun to see what she's like when drunk.

"And now it's time to pronounce the winners of tonight's costume competition!" A teacher in a sweatshirt announced from the top of the stairs of the school. He looked like a P.E teacher and quick peek into his mind verified that fact. Bezanthume noticed how everyone turned their attention to the man and gathered around the stairs. So they knew about this? Was that the reason everyone was wearing a costume? Well, whatever it was, it didn't affect him one way or another.

"As for the best male costume…" The man held a dramatic pause before announcing the winner "The winner is… Uh, the man dressed as Tykki Mikk from the show D. Gray-Man! Weird, there's no name here…" The man announced and all eyes turned to Bezanthume. He raised a brow and looked right back at them. He sure as hell didn't sign up for the contest. One glance at a very happy looking Lilith verified his doubts.

Bezanthume sighed and started walking towards the "stage". The crowd split in half to let him pass and he was sure to ignore the chatter flying among the students.

"Who is that guy? Does he go to our school?"

"He's freaking huge…"

"He looks so cool…"

"Check out his eyes…"

"Who is he?"

"Is he even a student?"

Bezanthume walked to the top of the stairs and stood next to the P.E teacher facing the crowd. He saw how every face he saw was filled with some variation of amazement. He wasn't an emphatic psychic like Lilith, but he did think human reactions were amusing, so he took his top hat to his left hand and then bowed with his left hand stretched out to his side with the top hat and his right hand on his heart. A slight smile spread on his face when he heard the chatter of erratic and lovesick thoughts this simple gesture caused. Humans were so easy to manipulate, especially the young female ones.

"What is your name, young man?!" Ochi Misato yelled as she mysteriously appeared right next to the P.E teacher. The P.E teacher flinched back from surprise. Ochi Misato's cheeks were slightly blushed and she was swaying in place ever so slightly. Bezanthume had to conclude that she had drunken at least one full cup of the spiked punch. Bezanthume straightened his back and walked over to Ochi Misato. He placed the top hat on her head and gave it a tap to set it in place. He bent down until he was on the same level with Ochi Misato's face.

"Oh, but that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" Bezanthume said and gave the teacher another smile that barely exposed his teeth. He thought that seeing his fangs might have been a little too unsettling for her to deal with, in one way or another.

"And as for… uh, the female winner on tonight's costume competition…" The P.E teacher said, sounding rather bewildered. Bezanthume straightened his back and took the top hat off of Ochi Misato's head and ignored the shocked gasp from of the fact that Ochi Misato had a white rabbit sitting on her head. Bezanthume dusted off the top hat and walked back over to the P.E teacher.

"Inoue Orihime, with her costume as Lenalee Lee from the same show: D. Gray-Man!" The P.E teacher announced again. Bezanthume was slightly surprised but that was small compared to how surprised Inoue Orihime was. Bezanthume saw how her mouth was hanging open when she was standing at the back of the crowd with Tatsuki standing next to her protectively. It seemed like she hadn't signed up for the contest either. She walked up the stairs and looked amusingly shell-shocked. She turned back to face the crowd and then blushed brightly from all of them looking at her. She was probably now very much aware of how revealing her costume actually was.

Bezanthume noticed that Lilith was having a hard time containing her laughter. Yes, and she must be very much aware of all the sexual fantasies Orihime's costume was producing right now. Bezanthume could also hear a lustful thought here and there, but tuned them out to be able to contain his composure.

"Uhm, thank you very much…" Inoue Orihime said meekly and did a small courteous bow. Bezanthume smirked widely and couldn't stop a low chuckle escaping his mouth. This helped Inoue Orihime's embarrassment as it took everyone's eyes off of her and on him. He had used a spell to alter his voice to be human, but his voice was still very low and it did attract attention. He waved his right hand dismissively and hurried to cover his mouth with the other. Maybe coming here did pay off after all: Seeing Inoue Orihime embarrassed like this was just precious.

Bezanthume walked down the stairs and the crowd didn't let him pass this time. Instead they surrounded him and started asking him questions. He noted that the majority of the people around him were female and their thoughts were very… loud. He carefully pushed them aside and walked out of the gates of the grounds of the school and soon as he turned the corner he turned back invisible. He really didn't want to deal with a pack of adolescent girls right now.

He spread his wings out again and flew over to the roof of the school and looked down on what was going on. He saw several groups of adolescent girls gathering around from time to time and heard them speculating who he was. It certainly seemed he had caused quite a storm among them.

Well, who the hell cared about that?

**Aftermath:**

**Asano** **Keigo: **He knocked over the bowl of punch Bezanthume had spiked, so no one else got to taste it. Later in the evening he was arrested for indecent exposure in a nearby bath house. When asked about how that was possible he quickly changed the subject.

**Honshou Chizuru: **She now has an eight hour long gap in her memory, but the fact that she woke up in the suite of the largest hotel in Karakura town greatly puzzles her. Later she found out that the suite had been paid in cash and the tenants had been signed as "Ms. Dyke and Ms. Lulubell"

**Ochi Misano: **She left the Halloween party by car soon after Bezanthume made his getaway. She is fine, but it is rumored that her unusual cheeriness and absent mindedness is directly associated with the fact that her husband has taken sick days from work on the account of "Loss of stamina" and "Back problems".

**Ishida Uryuu: **Also has an eight hour gap in his memory. He woke up in Hueco Mundo. He or his father still do not have the slightest idea of how he was able to get there, but Ishida Ryuuken had to go to Urahara Kisuke for means to retrieve his son. When asked about how he actually knew that Uryuu had ended up in Hueco Mundo he muttered something about that he had never liked kids, pink or shinigami.

**Inoue Orihime: **She was taken home by Arisawa tatsuki when the lecherous looks her classmates (and teachers) were getting too much for her.

**AN:**

**I felt like I just had to end this chapter somewhere. I could have gone on forever about this. And before you ask: This was whipped up in a rush in about a day and chapter Eight is almost done. It should only be a couple of days now. I just felt like doing something for Halloween.**

**Thank you for reading!**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


	9. Heat

**So, after the special halloween omake (that was late) I managed to finish chapter Eight. I am proud of myself right now and actually have nothing else to say about this that that I would appreciate reviews.**

**End of AN  
**

**Chapter Eight**

**Heat  
**

"**Damn, I have yet another reason to hate humans…" **Bezanthume said as he stumbled forward on a street that hopefully lead to the park. It was impossible for him to fly right now, not before that fucking tea left his system. Who the hell has hallowed tea? What possible meaning would a human have for such a thing? It was just idiotic to have something like that! It was pure luck that he happened to crash into an empty house when the tea started affecting him.

Bezanthume stumbled and he had to support himself on a street lamp. The steel under his hand glowed red, the lamp broke with a loud crack and he felt how the steel started to give in under his weight. That was another thing; it was nearly impossible for him to control his powers now. Everything he touched would be reduced to ash for the next couple of hours and every electric circuit in his immediate proximity would short-circuit. He pushed himself away from the lamp and continued on his way. He had left Lilith alone with Kuchiki Rukia and by now right about anything could have happened. There was an untrustworthy angel if there ever was one. Not like Bezanthume would ever trust an angel in the first place, but Lilith was especially untrustworthy.

He kept stumbling forward and was gathering fearful and amazed looks from the people that were walking the streets. It seemed like he couldn't even stay invisible with the tea still in his system. He had retracted his wings a while ago to conserve energy. The people that saw him were wise enough to steer clear of him. He was at least twice their size and he wasn't really looking sociable right now. He had his hood down and was breathing heavily. His hair was in his face and his hands were swaying limply by his sides. He was sweating profoundly and even though the spell he had used to change the color of his eyes was still in effect there was a dangerous glow in his eyes. He was grateful that there had not been any kind souls that would approach him. He didn't know what he would do in his present condition.

These humans had a very appropriate saying for this kind of situation:"A wounded beast is the most dangerous" or something along those lines. His mind had a hard time grasping thoughts right now. It felt like dull knives were gnawing at his insides. His body was trying to quickly counteract the poison he had ingested by trying to force a transformation. He really hated being that mist-like thing. He felt at home in this humanoid form. In his ethereal form he felt no pain, no hunger, fear, or mercy, or simply put: he was nearly invincible, but he could not feel or distinguish between friend and foe, only destroy and pervert everything he touched.

He hated that, so he fought the transformation and gritted his teeth from the pain. He would endure this for how long it was going to last. Judging from the amount of tea he had ingested and the severity of the attack he would say that this would subside in an hour or so. Still, he had no time to wait for it to pass. He had to get back to the park as soon as possible.

Shit! Things were really not going according to plan…

**Orihime**

Tatsuki-chan let her cry against her chest as long as the tears flowed and Orihime was not sure how long that was. So much had happened and she had not had a chance to let it all out when she had been surrounded by people that were only trying to exploit her. Sure, she had cried, she would have lost her mind if she hadn't, but she had always kept her head, so that they couldn't make use of her weakened judgment… too much. She had a feeling she had been played like a violin in spite of her resolve, but still it did pay off. Bezanthume did save her in the end. She was back here, with Tatsuki-chan and everyone, before everything went wrong, before the fighting and the useless violence became mundane.

Orihime sniffed and raised her head from Tatsuki's chest. Now that her thoughts were coming back to her she wasn't sure about how much and about what had she talked about while crying. How much did Tatsuki know now? Did she believe any of it was a more valid question? This was definitely not the first time she had babbled about a bad dream she had while crying against Tatsuki's shoulder. Tatsuki placed a reassuring hand over her head and petted her hair. Orihime raised her eyes up to level with Tatsuki and saw the look in her eyes.

"Your imagination never seizes to amaze me. Don't worry; it was all just a dream, Orihime. Believe me." Tatsuki said and then stood up to stretch her aching muscles. "Agh! My legs fell asleep! Damn it!" Tatsuki did a series of stretches to fight the tingly sensation in her legs and Orihime also stood up. She walked into the kitchen and noticed that the tea she had made for Lilith was still there, it was cold now, but it would be simple just to reheat it.

"Would you like some tea? I was making some for… myself and then you were banging on the door." Orihime was about to say "Lilith", but then decided against it. She didn't want to start explaining why there had been someone named Lilith in her apartment, if she hadn't told Tatsuki about her already. She had a feeling that any excuse she could come up with would lead to her mentioning Bezanthume at some point. She really didn't want to start explaining him. She was almost sure that she hadn't mentioned him to Tatsuki just yet. She was not 100 % sure, though. She had a tendency to spill her guts out when crying.

"Sure! That's fine." Tatsuki said while doing a split on the floor. Orihime could only hope to be that flexible. She had trouble doing the simplest of stretches during P.E. Sure, the fact that Tatsuki was an active member of the karate club had its part in her astounding flexibility, but she was a natural to begin with. Orihime reheated the tea and then washed two cups in the sink. When did those pile up? She would have to take care of it later. She carried the teapot and the cups to the living room and set them on the table. She and Tatsuki sat down on the floor and Orihime poured the tea into the two cups.

"So, how did it go with Kurosaki? Did you catch him?" Tatsuki asked and took a sip out of her tea. Orihime's hand stopped right before she drank the tea. Yeah, what could she say here? Lying to Tatsuki was something she would rather not do, but was there really any other way out of this?

"Uhm… I ran after him, but I wasn't able to catch him… and then I got lost… I was actually making tea to calm my nerves when you showed up." Orihime lied. It wouldn't actually be the first time she had gotten lost and she hoped that her story sounded plausible. Tatsuki gave her a look and then smiled. It looked like she believed Orihime's explanation. That was a relief. Orihime sipped her tea.

"Where did you get that ring?" Tatsuki said and focused her eyes on Orihime's right hand. Yeah, how was Orihime going to explain the ring? Tatsuki would not believe her if she said that Kurosaki-kun gave it to her…

"I wandered into a market when I was lost and there was this really nice lady selling jewelry and she gave me a discount on this ring, a nice find, right?" Orihime said and laughed nervously. Tatsuki narrowed her eyes and took a serious expression.

"You're hiding something… Who was it?" Tatsuki leaned closer to Orihime and looked at her straight in the eyes. Orihime leaned back and wondered if she should tell Tatsuki about Bezanthume to make it easier. It was hard to lie to someone who knew you as well as Tatsuki knew her and it was extra hard to lie to a friend as close as Tatsuki.

"What… What do you mean? No one gave this to me!" Orihime rushed to answer and then turned her eyes away. Tatsuki grinned widely and pointed an accusing finger towards Orihime.

"What is this? Someone is giving you jewelry and you didn't tell me? You should tell me these things, there's no telling what the guy could do to you if you give him the wrong idea… It _is _a guy, right? What's he like?" Tatsuki talked with excitement shining in her eyes. Orihime tried to deny everything but Tatsuki had already made her mind about this. She was right, in a way, there was someone new in her life that was giving her jewelry, there was just that he was a psychotic eight feet tall demon. He was not what Tatsuki would call "boyfriend material", but that was not something she could actually tell Tatsuki, now was it?

"No, I actually did buy this on my own! Is that so hard to believe?" Orihime said and then gave Tatsuki a look full of honest innocence. She had learned how to fake one during her stay in Las Noches. Tatsuki made a face and then turned away from Orihime's expression of child-like innocence. It was obvious that she felt a little guilty about pestering her with her curiosity. Orihime, in turn, felt bad about making her feel bad, but just took another sip of her tea. It tasted better than she had remembered…

"Well, you do live on your own… Sorry for doubting you, but you really should get a boyfriend." Tatsuki said. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a while. Orihime treasured every moment, but Tatsuki was getting restless. She glanced at the clock on the wall and then turned to Orihime to tell her she should be leaving now. Orihime asked her a question right at the second she opened her mouth.

"How about you, Tatsuki?" Orihime asked Tatsuki and stared at her right in the eye. This had been one of the questions she had pondered over during her captivity to keep her sanity. Now she just had to say it outside or her mind would probably implode on itself. Tatsuki stared back at her in surprise.

"What about me?" Tatsuki asked and tried to look indifferent. Was she avoiding the question? Now that she thought about it they had never talked about Tatsuki's love life, Tatsuki had just given her advice about her crush on Ichigo. Tatsuki's love interest hadn't come up just yet.

"Do you have anyone special in mind?" Orihime asked and nudged closer to Tatsuki. Tatsuki gulped and opened her mouth to answer and then she closed it and then opened it once again. Tatsuki made a puzzled face and put a hand on her throat. Suddenly it felt very hard to speak, like there was a great big lump in her throat stopping a word forming on her lips. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. What was wrong with her? She shouldn't get so worked up from a single question. This was stranger than strange.

"Well, the boys in our class are nice and all, but they are also… weak… A man is supposed to be the one to protect you and well, I don't need to be protected… The only guys in our class that could beat me in a match are probably Kurosaki or Chad and they're not my type… So, no, I do not have anyone special in mind." Tatsuki was staring at her tea and seemed to be deep in thought. She didn't really look depressed, but Orihime did get a feeling that she was asking herself too many serious questions. She needed to cheer her up.

"Oh yeah! I should be making dinner! You want some?" Orihime said while standing up and running over to the bag of groceries. She busied herself over checking if she had remembered to buy everything and Tatsuki walked over to her. She took one glance at the selection of foodstuff in front of Orihime and what was still left in the bag and made her decision.

"Sorry, but I really should be going home by now. It's getting dark already and my mom must be worried sick." Tatsuki said and picked up her bag from the floor. She still had her school uniform on. She had intended to stop by at Orihime's place quickly and then go home, change and then think of what to do from there. Things had not gone exactly as planned and she ended up staying with Orihime until sundown. She was just so sensitive sometimes; if a vivid dream was enough to cause something like this she had to wonder how much she would cry when someone broke up with her?

"Oh, sorry about keeping you, Tatsuki-chan… I'm such a crybaby." Orihime said in a matter-of-fact tone and walked over to the kitchen with her hands full of groceries. Tatsuki raised a brow at her behavior, but got her answer when she heard the rumble Orihime's stomach made just then. She must be starving, Tatsuki was hungry herself, but she could tough it out until she got home, and to her mother's cooking. Orihime's cooking was a little too… extraordinary.

"I'm off! See you later, Orihime!" Tatsuki yelled and opened the door. Orihime didn't answer her. The only sounds were the clatter of pots and pans and the sound of a kitchen knife hacking away at an unfortunate vegetable. Orihime was an excellent cook, but she just tended to get too creative with her cooking. Tatsuki shrugged it off and stepped out. She closed the door behind her and walked down the stairs. She glanced at her watch and was surprised to see how late it was already.

She decided to take a shortcut through the park not to make her mother worry too much.

**Lilith**

Lilith was sitting up in the tree and twisting a strand of her hair around her finger nervously. Benny is really not going to like this. Only did she let them get away with the girl he had kidnapped, but now there was a dead kid laying face down on the grass and a replica of the girl's body laying limply on the ground. Well, the kid was still breathing and muttering something, but he was inevitably going to die. Did he need this kid to fulfill his contract with that busty girl? Should Lilith at least try and heal him? She had never been that gifted in healing, she was a more of an illusion and charm kind of girl. Lilith bit her lip and flew over to the orange haired kid.

"Damn it… Damn it… Damn it…" The orange haired kid was repeating those words over and over again. Lilith thought that it was creepy, but understood that his hate and sense of regret helped him stay conscious. That was good. Lilith kneeled down next to his head and poked him a little. The boy sluggishly turned his head to face her. If this kid was able to see her, an angel, then he was doomed. The talks about an "angel of death" were not all wrong. People that were very close to having their connection with this plane of existence severed were able to see angels, most of the time. It was a simple test to see if she should even bother to save him.

The boy blinked his eyes to see clearly and his eyes searched for the thing that had poked his head. His eyes finally fell on Lilith. His eyes stayed focused at her for a second, but then he blinked and his eyes started darting around again. So, does that mean he can see me… or not? Maybe he can see me just barely?

Oh, screw it! The kid was probably going to be okay anyway… But Lilith should make sure that he would stay alive until Benny got here. What was keeping him anyways? He might not be as fast with his wings as she was but he still should have been back about fifteen minutes ago. Did something happen? Did he get distracted by something, like a school girl walking home alone? She was aware of his appetite and wouldn't be surprised if he had stopped on his way for a snack, then he would feel guilty about it and make it up to the girl, in one way or another. He was a very contradicting personality and it was still a mystery for Lilith as to how a demon could be like that.

Lilith started to mutter words in her own language that would probably sound like beautiful music or singing to any human able to hear it. Her language wasn't all verbal in nature at all, that had always been hard for any other beings than demons to understand. She had a hard time remembering the words for a spell that would humans with bleeding wounds, but she was able to stop the bleeding and stabilize the boys breathing. Good, at least he wasn't going to bleed out now. Bezanthume can think of the rest when he finally gets here.

Lilith flew back over to the tree and perched herself back on the branch of the tree. He was too nervous to retract her wings and she felt good with such a strong life force around her. Trees were old and tranquil in nature. She leaned her head on the tree and closed her eyes to calm herself. What will come, will come…

But now she felt sleepy.

**Bezanthume**

He was finally in the park. He wasn't sure how long it had taken him to get there, but from the fact that his reaction to the tea hadn't subsided yet, he could say it wasn't an hour. He leaned on tree to catch his breath.

Damn, he really, really hated tea right now. He wasn't that fond of the "Chiyo" woman either. The stupidity of man never failed to amaze and infuriate him. The tree he was leaning on started to wither and smoke was already rising from the point he was leaning on. At least he had regained some control over his powers, earlier the tree would have been set on fire on contact. He pushed himself off of the tree before he started a fire that would probably spread to the nearby housings. He kept on walking on the path that led deeper into the park.

He was still breathing heavily and sweating and he really felt dehydrated. One of the drawbacks of having a human body, well, more humanoid than human. It was impossible for demons to squeeze all of their self into a body that was merely human, it just wouldn't take it. Every demon that chose a human form were always superior to normal humans in some, if not all, ways, but still they had some of the weaknesses of humans. He kept on thinking about this and walking forward. He really had a bad feeling about leaving Lilith in charge of Kuchiki Rukia.

"Come on, girl, come have fun with us!" A slightly slurring male voice shouted out. Bezanthume glanced at the direction the voice was coming from, but didn't pay it any more attention when he noted that they weren't close enough to notice him. The antics of some drunks were not his business.

"Yeah, girlie, we won't hurt you" Another male voice called out. This one didn't even sound drunk, just lecherous. Bezanthume spared them another glance and saw seven men surrounding a girl that was wearing something that looked like a school uniform.

"We'll be good to you, girlie, we'll do you real good" Another man said and grabbed the girl's arm. Bezanthume heard the girl's fist making contact with the man's face. He heard the man stumble back and fall to the ground. At least the girl had a good punch.

"You bitch!" The man on the ground shouted with a nasal voice, the girl had broken his nose. Bezanthume smirked and kept on walking. It was still none of his business. He heard the sounds of the men rushing towards the girl and the sounds of the girl landing quite a few punches. That should discourage those drunks…

"You little cunt! You're gonna pay for that!"

He stopped walking. There was something wrong with this picture. He didn't hear the girl run away. Instead he heard the men muttering curses.

"Get the fuck off me, you bastards! I'll kill you!" The girl screamed and Bezanthume heard how the men grunted when they had to hold her down harder.

"We're gonna treat you real good, girl…" The man with the broken nose said. Bezanthume heard the sound of a zipper being opened.

Bezanthume gritted his teeth and suddenly noticed that he was moving again.

**Tatsuki**

Tatsuki fought back with all her might and was able to knockout three of them before the rest were able to wrestle her to the ground and hold her arms and legs. They were cursing and groaning, but what really pissed her off was that they were also laughing at her. She could see the lecherous smirks on their faces and suddenly realized what was bound to happen now.

"Get the fuck off me, you bastards!" She fought back even harder and the men holding her arms and legs had to press her down with their whole weight to keep her from getting free.

"We're gonna treat you real good, girl…" The guy with the broken nose said while unzipping his pants. Tatsuki looked up to his face with horror. His whole jaw drenched in blood and the front of his shirt stained with his blood. She also noticed that his teeth were also dyed red from blood.

"You disgust me…" A very low male voice said from behind the man with blood on his face and a broken nose, her potential rapist. The man turned around to see who would interrupt his fun and was suddenly dangled up in the air by his neck by the largest man Tatsuki had ever seen. Tatsuki knew someone like Chad so that was a lot to say about a person.

"Don't you dare say a single word, you scum!" The mystery man said in a very dangerous tone while he was strangling the life out of the man he was holding up in the air with one hand. The man was breathing heavily and sweat glistened on his face. Did he run to save her or was he sick or something? Tatsuki heard how the man either gritted his teeth in anger or the neck of the man he was holding was starting to creak, either way the man holding down her right leg was shocked enough about the appearance of her savior to loosen his grip enough for her to get her leg free.

She gave the guy holding her left leg a nice kick in the face with her right leg and when he stumbled back in pain she slammed the heel of her foot against the neck of the man that was holding her right leg just a second ago. Judging by the strangled gurgling voice he made while falling on the ground Tatsuki had been able to damage his windpipe. She was just about to handle the men holding her arms down when they suddenly let go like her arms like her skin was burning their hands. Why would they do that?

The answer to this came a fraction of a second later in the form of a blood stained flying object. She turned her attention to her savior in awe. The guy he just threw around like a rag doll wasn't exactly a featherweight. He had to weigh around 80 kilograms and this guy just threw him like he was nothing with one hand.

Who was this guy? It was hard to determine his age because his hair was in his face and his coat covered the rest of his body, but he looked young, maybe a couple of years older than she was, but definitely under 20. And then there was his size that might have added a couple of years to her estimation. He was at least eight feet tall. He was still breathing heavily and his arms were limp by his sides. It looked like he was about to fall on his back.

"Are you alright?" Tatsuki said and got back on her feet. She kicked a guy that was about to come back to his senses and then walked closer to the man that had just saved her. He was really not looking so good. Did he have some medical condition? Maybe it was genetic, just a drawback of his colossal size, expanded arteries or something. She had seen a documentary on something like that on TV. The colossal man didn't even seem to notice her. He looked like he was in quite a lot of pain. Tatsuki took a step closer and felt the heat radiating off of his body. He was really sick.

"Do you need an ambulance?" Tatsuki asked and looked up to his face. His hair was hanging in front of his face and he had his eyes closed. Tatsuki walked back to her bag and dug around for her phone.

"Wait…" The man said in his incredibly low voice. Tatsuki turned back to face him and saw him looking right at her. His eyes looked like they were shining their own light "This is just an allergic reaction. I'll be fine in an hour or so… Still hurts like hell, though…" Tatsuki kept on staring at his face. She had expected for him to be… well if not deformed, at least look somehow different from normal sized people; simple or at least plain in his features.

She really did not expect for him to be handsome. From what she could see in the dim lighting of his face was definitely not in any way deformed. His eyes were a luminescent green that stood out from behind the curtain of his long dark hair. She wasn't sure but it looked like his hair was either a slightly reddish kind of black, or a very dark brown color. She wasn't able to make out any fine details of his face before he straightened his back and started stumbling in the opposite direction. He was really running a high fever and probably should not be moving around, but he was probably the one to know his own illness better than she ever could.

"What? You're not even going to ask if I'm alright?" Tatsuki said in an annoyed tone. The man didn't even seem to acknowledge her. He just kept on walking with his back turned to her. Tatsuki glanced over to the seven unconscious bastards around her and noticed that some of them were already coming back to their senses. Not like she couldn't just knock them out again, but staying near an eight feet tall guy wearing a black overcoat would make matters a whole lot more uncomplicated.

Even though he seemed to be stumbling forward sluggishly Tatsuki had to run to catch up with him. His step was about twice as long as hers and even though he was moving rather sluggishly for his own pace Tatsuki had to speed up her step a little to keep up with him. He kept on walking without even noticing her. She was heading in the same direction anyway, so why not have an eight feet tall bastard repellant?

"Why are you following me, _girl?_" He asked with his incredibly low voice. It was almost like a rumble than a voice. He might not have actually pronounced the "girl" in that sentence, but Tatsuki was just pissed off from being called "girl".

"Why are you being so rude, _bastard?_" Tatsuki shot back without thinking. The man glanced at her with those glowing green eyes of his and something in the look in his eyes gave her chills. Maybe she shouldn't have insulted the man who just saved her from being raped. She noticed how his lips curved up slightly for a second. Was he laughing at her? That bastard!

"Sorry, but it's kinda painful to talk right now…" He said and his face flinched from pain for a fraction of a second. Tatsuki blushed and turned her eyes away. She felt bad about being so rude to him. He was obviously in great pain and she expected him to be polite? She felt like an awful person… This guy just saved her while having a severe allergic reaction and she started bitching to him about him being _rude_. What was wrong with her? She should be thanking him, but instead she was insulting him.

**Bezanthume**

The girl, that was following him for some reason, was getting depressing thoughts. Bezanthume looked as far into her mind as he could in his current state and found out that her name was Arisawa Tatsuki, a close friend to Inoue Orihime. Well, it was fortunate that he had decided to save her. Inoue Orihime would not approve of her friend getting raped in a park. He would have to turn back time and go save her anyways.

But how was he going to get rid of her? He stressed his inner eye and was able to see her destination and sighed in relief as it was an exit from the park quite close to the place he had left Kuchiki Rukia. If this girl was a friend of Inoue Orihime he couldn't let anything overly terrible happen to her.

The girl stayed quiet as they walked and just kept glancing up to his face whenever she thought he wasn't looking. She must have noticed the unnatural glow of his eyes, but if she really did notice that why was she not even the slightest bit intimated? Maybe she didn't think of it as frightening because he saved her or something? Humans and their total lack of control over their erratic emotions… Bezanthume didn't have time to be concerned over such things right now and decided to leave it as it was. It was just not safe for him to go poking around in the girl's mind in his present condition. She would not die, but turning her into a crazed maniac or a drooling vegetable couldn't be filed under "okay" in Inoue Orihime's book.

They kept on walking in silence and it was painfully clear to Bezanthume that Arisawa Tatsuki was almost bursting at the seams to ask him about something. He was careful to ignore her and keep on walking. He couldn't help but notice her mouth opening and closing when she was just about to ask say something, but then remembered that it was painful for him to talk and decided against talking. If he wouldn't have been in so much pain it would have been a whole lot harder to stop a grin spreading on his face. Humans might have their, many, flaws, but they were always just as amusing. And they were so easily manipulated to boot.

They walked past another patch of trees. Bezanthume raised his head and aimed his eyes towards the tree Kuchiki Rukia was _supposed _to be under. He was more than disappointed to see the limp form of no other than Kurosaki Ichigo laying on the ground and staining the grass under him with his own blood. He just knew he never should have trusted Lilith in the first place. But how did Kuchiki Rukia's gigai get there? Well, that is unimportant now. I have to make sure that this girl does not see Kuchiki Rukia's faux body. That would mean too many questions that would lead to memory manipulation.

"You have something to ask me" Bezanthume said and set his pace in such a way that his body would block her from seeing Kuchiki Rukia's faux body and the nearly dead Kurosaki Ichigo. When she looked up to his face the girl turned her whole attention to his eyes. So she had noticed that they were glowing after all. Bezanthume kept on looking into her eyes to stop her from averting her eyes to the sight behind him. If he would have had the same kind of eyes that humans had then he wouldn't have noticed the slight blush that rose up on her face.

"Well, it was just that I was wondering if you were new in town… It's just that you're… kind of hard to miss… and I haven't seen you around…" The girl's voice faded into nothing while her blush deepened. Bezanthume sensed a wave of anger and frustration from the girl named Arisawa Tatsuki. She was beating herself up from saying such things maybe? Bezanthume saw nothing illogical in her question, but her reaction caused his lips to quirk up a little.

"Well, I am new in town… and hard to miss for that matter" Bezanthume couldn't stop his amusement from shining through his voice. Arisawa Tatsuki did not take kindly to this and punched him in the gut. She might have meant it to just be a playful jab in the ribs, but with Bezanthume's current condition it caused him to see black spots and lose his sense of balance. He fell down on one knee and clutched his stomach while groaning from the sudden waves of knowing pain. He really, really hated this. Perhaps it would have just been easier to succumb to the transformation in the first place and avoid this situation altogether.

"Sorry! I'm really sorry! Are you alright? I don't know why I hit you. You're sick and I went and punched you in the gut… I'm such an awful person…" Arisawa Tatsuki hurried to say and stepped closer with the intention of helping him. Bezanthume swatted her hands away before she burned herself.

"I'm just fine; you just caught me off guard there. You have a nice punch by the way…" Bezanthume said and straightened himself from kneeling on one knee and into his full height. The girl took a reflexive step back and he saw a small undertone of fright in her eyes. Did she think that he was going to punch her back? What a stupid girl… Maybe he could get rid of her faster if he pretended to attack her? Bezanthume looked at her eyes again and noticed that the undertone of fear was _very _small. She would probably hit and kick right back at if he even tried to get hostile.

"I'll walk you through the park; there are all kinds of people lurking around here that could still attack you. I wish to rid you of the inconvenience of beating them into submission, that's all." Bezanthume said and gave Tatsuki a slight smile that didn't bare his inhumanly long fangs. He noticed how the girl blushed again and felt like rolling his eyes. Humans were so fucking easy to manipulate…

"Yeah… Thanks." Arisawa Tatsuki said and then started walking with Bezanthume staying right next to her. Bezanthume noticed that she was tenser and now avoided eye contact when just a minute ago she was glancing up to his eyes with great interest. Yes, humans were easy to manipulate, but they were also almost impossible to comprehend.

**Lilith:**

"**Lilith, wake up!" **Bezanthume's voice roared in the edge of Lilith's mind. She stirred in her sleep, but failed to wake up.

"Just a couple more minutes…" Lilith mumbled in her sleep and positioned her head more comfortably against the tree. She was just having a very pleasant dream involving several scantily dressed people and a whole tub full of whipped cream. She wished that she could catch that dream again before it slipped too far. Things had just started to get exciting.

"**Lilith, you perverted little nympho, if you don't wake up right now I **_**will**_** rip your wings off!" **Bezanthume roared into her mind with enough force to chase her dream away and snap her back to reality. When did she fall asleep, how long had she been asleep and where was Benny?

"**Stop calling me Benny and tell me what the hell happened already! How could you lose Kuchiki Rukia, have her faux body there and almost get Kurosaki Ichigo killed?" **Bezanthume's voice roared in a very angry tone. Lilith dropped down from the tree and walked over to Kurosaki Ichigo to see if he was still breathing. He was, that was good, she wasn't sure how mad Bezanthume would be if he had died while she was asleep. She wasn't sure because she didn't have a word to describe it.

"Well… First these two guys showed up and tried to take Rukia away. I thought I should distract them, so I did that and the high and mighty looking bastard was able to get away with a lock of my hair! Then this hero here showed up and I decided to use him to at least delay them long enough for you to show up. This kid lost, they talked about something extremely irrelevant and then the two guys left with Rukia in tow. If you wouldn't have wandered around somewhere this could have been avoided. What the hell were you doing anyways, having a snack?" Lilith said and then stopped to catch her breath. It was going to take a little while for her lungs to fully recover. Lilith felt Bezanthume's presence falter and his anger subside gradually.

"**Kuchiki Byakyua… Well, there wouldn't have been much you could do against him anyways, but why didn't you just grab Kuchiki Rukia and fly away? There shouldn't have been a way for them to catch you if you would have done that." **Bezanthume said into her mind. Lilith didn't answer him in a couple of minutes and she felt how Bezanthume's anger grew back into its original intensity.

"**The thought didn't even occur to you, did it?! Fuck, I knew you were an angel, but you are unbelievably stupid!" **Bezanthume roared into her mind and she felt like she was smothering under the weight of his anger.

"That Byakyua could predict my movements! There was no way for me to get close enough to get Rukia. He was fast enough to slice of a lock of my hair. You were the one who was god knows where doing god knows what! I was counting on you coming to take care of them!" Lilith screamed back at him mentally. Bezanthume's presence wavered for a second. Lilith could picture him sighing and gritting his teeth.

"**Yeah, whatever… There's nothing we can do about it now anyways. I'll be there in a matter of minutes. Make sure to keep Kurosaki Ichigo alive. If you manage to fuck that up you're going right back where I found you." **Bezanthume said into her mind. Lilith raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at Bezanthume's statement.

"What do you mean "nothing we can do"? You can turn back time! Just do your thing and get Rukia back!" Lilith exclaimed. She felt how Bezanthume's presence wavered and then disappeared completely. Did he get fed up with her? No, Bezanthume was better at mental communication than she was and the fact that a connection wavered and disappeared like that meant that someone was too weak to maintain it. What had happened to Bezanthume? No, better yet: what could make _him _weak?

**Chizuru:**

Chizuru opened her eyes and for a second she was unsure of where, who and what she was, then she realized that she was someone with a huge headache and very sore muscles, everything else came back to her at a much slower pace. She remembered that her name was Honshou Chizuru; she went to Karakura High and…

"Welcome back, sweetie! Did you have a nice nap?" Honshou Chiyo chirped and her smiling face appeared over Chizuru. Mom? If mom was here, then here is probably home… Chizuru turned her head to the side and saw her living room, at her house, definitely not the park.

"How did I get here?" Chizuru asked her mother. Her mother, instead of simply answering her right away, sat down on the side of the couch, petted her hair and checked her temperature in the process. She was acting very… motherly. That was fine, but now it was just wrong.

"Mom, how did I get here?" Chizuru asked and forced herself up on her elbows. Her head hurt like hell. Did Lily carry her here, or did she just have a gap in her memory? The last thing she remembered was closing her eyes on that bench in the park. After she got her first real kiss… Why did she go and pass out just when it was getting interesting?

"You were carried home in the arms of the most charming man. Really, he was such a gentleman. He was in such a hurry though that I didn't even catch his name…" Her mother babbled on. She was carried home by a _man? _She lost consciousness in a park and then she was carried home by some _man? _A gentleman or not, she had still been touched by a man while she was unconscious. That would be discomforting for a normal girl, like her mother insisted on calling heterosexuals, but for a girl with her preferences it was downright disgusting.

"What? By a _man,_ that's disgusting!" Chizuru screamed and shot up to a sitting position. The world spun around her and she felt like she was going to be sick. She lowered herself down on the couch again. Why was she feeling like this? Was she sick? Had that been the reason she passed out? Whatever it was her head still hurt like hell.

"Oh, don't try to hide it. You have nothing to be embarrassed about." Her mother waved her right hand and had her left in front of her mouth while she giggled. "He was quite a hunk, mommy wouldn't have minded to get a piece."

"MOM! He could have raped me for all you knew and you just thought about how much of a gentleman he was because he was _handsome?_" Chizuru yelled at her mom with all her might. Her mother leaned back and looked shocked by her daughter's behavior.

"But he knew where you lived, so he couldn't have been a complete stranger and I think you would be bleeding all over if a man his size would have raped you. And I didn't find anything else wrong with you other than the slight burn marks around your mouth. How did that happen by the way, did you burn yourself on something like hot tea?" Honshou Chiyo said and then pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose in a very Ishida-like manner. Chizuru sighed; her mother was talking all smart again. That annoyed the hell out of her, but she did have a point. Maybe Lily just called for someone to carry her home after she passed out on her. Chizuru loved the idea of Lily carrying her, but her logical side said that Lily wouldn't be able to carry her all the way home.

"His size?" Chizuru said, sounding puzzled. What had carried her home, a giant? Was her mother even talking about his height, or maybe she was talking about his… She really didn't want to think about what she might be talking about. Lily might have called one of those relatives of hers that lived in Japan for help and Lily in herself was already taller than either Chizuru or her mother, so her mother was probably talking about his height, hopefully.

"Yes, he was huge! He had to bend down just to get through the door and he looked like he could just pin you up against a wall and– " Honshou Chiyo said with a dreamy sound in her voice before her daughter interrupted her.

"MOM! That's disgusting! I do not want to hear about your sexual fantasies!" Chizuru yelled and got up from the couch. She tried to ignore the dizziness, but still had to support herself on the couch. Was she coming down with a cold or something? She still walked around the couch and started to carefully walk up the stairs. Her sense of vertigo didn't get any better, but it didn't get any worse either.

"I'll be bringing up some soup in a minute, honey!" Her mother yelled from the kitchen cheerily. She was just as unfazed about her daughter's insults as she always was.

Chizuru opened the door to her room and then threw herself on the bed. How could she feel so tired when she had been sleeping just a couple of minutes ago? Her whole body was aching and her head felt detached from the rest of her body. Her bed felt so warm and inviting that she worked her way under the covers and closed her eyes when the softness of her bed made her feel very, very sleepy. The soup could wait, she wasn't that hungry anyways…

**Bezanthume**

He had parted ways with Arisawa Tatsuki on the gate of the park. The girl had asked him what his name was and Bezanthume had pretended not to hear her. She really did not need to know that. He had saved her, not the other way around. She had no right to ask for his name. He already knew her name and saw no reason for any more interaction, so he had simply walked away and told the girl to go home.

Now he was walking across the grassed field in the park and towards the desolate tree smacked right in the middle of it. He saw Lilith lying on the ground close to Kurosaki Ichigo. He was sure that Kurosaki Ichigo was alive, because if he wasn't then Lilith would be a couple of dimensions away already.

"**Good evening, Lilith." **Bezanthume said in a tone with just the slightest hint of amusement in it, the rest was just filled with pure killing intent. Lilith shot up and turned around to face him in surprise. She looked scared for the first second, but when she saw in what condition he was in it was replaced with curiosity.

"Damn, you look terrible. What happened to you?" Lilith asked without a hint of fear lacing her voice. Bezanthume wasn't sure why he even expected her to act like a normal angel in the first place. It had already been established that she was definitely not normal. Lilith stepped closer to him and stopped when she felt the heat radiating off of him.

"Perfect, it was getting kind of chilly out here." Lilith said merrily and took another small step closer. Bezanthume looked at Kurosaki Ichigo's unconscious body lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. He knew that this was only his soul and he would be fine if introduced back into his own body.

"**His real body cannot be far. Go find it." **Bezanthume said in a tone that didn't allow any objections. Lilith looked up to him with a sour look on her face, but didn't tempt her fate any more that she had already. She flew over to the direction she had seen the faux body run from when they suddenly appeared.. A thick of bushes and trees about twenty feet away from the tree Rukia had been under. It didn't take long for her to find a body with orange hair lying face down on the ground.

"Found it! Now what?" Lilith yelled to Bezanthume. Bezanthume was squatting down next to Kurosaki Ichigo's body and checking his wounds they looked severe and he would definitely die if nothing was done.

"**Bring it over here, there's nothing else we can do but reunite him with his body and hope that the condition of his soul doesn't…" **Bezanthume suddenly stopped talking and his head shot up and he looked around the trees and bushes. He couldn't see anything with his normal sight, so he closed his eyes and scanned the surrounding area for minds to the best of his ability in his current state.

"If you are here to help this boy, then you should come out before I hurt you." Bezanthume said with the spell changing his voice to sound human activated again. There was utter silence for a solid minute he decided to wait for an answer before acting. He stood up to his full height and raised his right hand up with his thumb resting on his middle finger. He charged the tips of his fingers with his fire and then launched it to the place where he had seen two minds trying not to be noticed by him. To an outsider it looked like he simply snapped his fingers and a twelve foot pillar of flames rose up from the thick of trees and bushes he was facing. He noticed two figures leaping out from the wake of the raging flames right before they would have been incinerated. It would have been simple for him to take control of the flames and make them reach out and burn them to ash and bones, but he didn't actually want to harm these people.

"My,my! That did surprise me quite a bit!" Urahara Kisuke said from behind Bezanthume and pressed the blade of his zanpakuto against the side his neck. "But I recommend that you would not try something like that again."

**PS AN: By the way: Bezanthume calls Orihime literally "Princess" not something like Hime-sama. Something I wanted to point out. Review, and I hope you liked it.**

**Crazy Laughter**


	10. Copperwail

**Hi there! This took a little longer than I thought and I'm not sure if I should make any promises about the next chapter either. This chapter doesn't have everything in it that I would have liked for there to be, but I'll have to spread it out to the next chapters then... Well, I hope you enjoy and review even if you don't, especially if you don't.**

* * *

**Chapter Nine **

**Copperwail**

Now this is a predicament… Bezanthume knew at least three ways out of this "life and death" situation that would be possible to an extraordinary human.

One: He could grab the blade of his sword and release the full heat of his flame on it. The heat would turn the blade red-hot and cause the hilt to either be set on fire or heat up like the blade, either way Urahara Kisuke would have to let go of the sword. He would have his weapon and thus be able to control the conversation.

Two: He could take the blade between his palms and kick Urahara Kisuke back while holding on to it. That would leave the sword in his hands.

Three: He could talk his way out of this.

As much as he wanted there to be a fourth option that included killing the annoying ex-shinigami he still had to adhere Inoue Orihime's wishes to spare himself from rewinding time every other second. But now: Which of the three he should choose? The two first sounded the most fun to do, but considering his present physical condition and that he didn't want to come off as superhuman the third option was the logical choice.

Regrettably, he had to follow his voice of reason for a change.

"Exactly who are you?" Urahara Kisuke asked and pressed the blade of his sword against his neck a little harder. He must be wondering why he hadn't drawn blood yet. Bezanthume almost laughed out loud. Did he really think that he could make a demon bleed from that little?

"Well, this country does seem very hospitable indeed. It took the whole of 48 hours for me to have a deadly weapon pressed against my neck. That's gotta be some kind of record, you know." Bezanthume replied sarcastically. He was fully aware that he answered his question in the vaguest way possible. The fact that he wasn't the slightest bit nervous with a sharp sword on his neck must seem strange in Urahara Kisuke's eyes. Bezanthume thought that he should give the guy something else to think about.

"Are you two here to help Kurosaki Ichigo?" Bezanthume asked and glanced behind his shoulder to see quite a surprised looking Urahara Kisuke with a black cat next to him. Bezanthume raised one eyebrow when looking at the cat that was looking at his hands very intently. Bezanthume put his hands in his pockets.

"Strange, I was sure that there was a woman with you…" Bezanthume said and kept on staring at Yoruichi. After two seconds he let a small smirk creep up on his face and saw how the cat's tail furrowed and its whole body seemed to shiver.

"I see… Interesting" Bezanthume said and turned back to facing Kurosaki Ichigo. Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi glanced at each other with similar looks of surprise and confusion on their faces. Urahara Kisuke shrugged and Shihouin Yoruichi waved her tail once.

"Just who are you, kid?" Shihouin Yoruichi said with her misleading voice. Bezanthume chuckled and looked back at Shihouin Yoruichi with an amused look.

"You have a really weird voice there, lady. The name's… Copperwail Benjamin, it's a pleasure to meet you." Bezanthume said and gave them a slightly pained smile. The effect of the tea he had digested had already lessened considerably and he could control his powers enough not to actually radiate heat anymore, but he was still in pain. Both Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi stared at him in disbelief. They just had a hard time believing that anyone could be so relaxed with a sword on their neck.

"How did you do that stunt just now?" Urahara Kisuke asked and nodded towards the area of trees and bushes reduced to ash by Bezanthume. Bezanthume decided to act a little to avoid the question. He wasn't really good at making up aliases on the fly. He shot a cold murderous gaze at Urahara Kisuke.

"You do not have any right to ask that of me" Bezanthume said in the most threatening tone he could muster without changing his voice back. Urahara Kisuke took an involuntary step back because of the incredible amount of killing intent he felt from this young, yet huge, man. Shihouin Yoruichi seemed to stay calm. She was the one to ask the next question.

"Why can't we sense your spiritual power?" Shihouin Yoruichi asked without a hint of fear present in her mind. Bezanthume looked down to the small cat and thought that he would like to meet this Shihouin Yoruichi in person, as in two humanoids. Meeting her as a cat was very… wrong.

"I am afraid that I have no idea what you are talking about, lady." Bezanthume said and wasn't even lying that much. He was puzzled by this notion of spiritual power and the means they measured it: reiatsu. It seemed like they measured their strength by how weak their control over it was. Humans were perplexing creatures indeed. All demons were able to control their power completely and keep it from leaking out from a very young age.

Shihouin Yoruichi walked over to Bezanthume and then seemed to sniff the air. Was she checking if he smelled human? Well, there was nothing he could do if she did smell something wrong. He was not the one that was a natural with mental manipulation. When Bezanthume was sure neither one of them was looking he glanced over to Lilith and noticed that she was standing over where Kurosaki Ichigo's body was, looking very indecisive. He was still a little too weak to muster the energy to talk into her mind. Angels had an incredible resistance against any kind of foreign mental influences. He had enough power to overpower both Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi, but he was not strong enough to communicate with Lilith. Somehow that just didn't seem right.

"What is your relation with Inoue Orihime?" Shihouin Yoruichi asked, surprising both Urahara Kisuke and Bezanthume. How could she possibly know about that? Did she smell her on him? Bezanthume hadn't realized that cats had such an acute sense of smell. Now he had to think of something. What would sound convincing? He had said that he had been in the country only for two days already.

"I moved next door to her two days ago. She's a real nice girl, came by to say hi and all that. A little too naive for her own good though…" Bezanthume wondered if he should slip in a lie in here that would bewilder them and explain the fact that Shihouin Yoruichi could smell her on him. But it was not like they would believe that Inoue Orihime would do something like that…

"Can I go now? I have better things to do than spend my whole night talking to you two. Not to mention that what you're doing isn't exactly legal and I probably would not be punished too hard if I were to defend myself." Bezanthume said in an over-confident tone very common for adolescent humans. He had to look as normal as possible in their eyes right now. Urahara Kisuke tilted his head a little and then took his sword off of his neck. Bezanthume didn't wait for him to say anything before starting to walk away. If he had too much interaction with them in his current state he could just slip something by mistake. He could feel the eyes of Shihouin Yoruichi following him when he walked away. He was aware of her doubts about him, but he couldn't do anything about it now.

"Should I erase their memory?" Lilith asked when setting down next to him. Bezanthume glanced over to her and then thought about her proposition. There was that possibility as well, but the road he was taking now seemed to be a whole lot more fun to take. He would have grinned right now if he wasn't in pain.

"Nah, just alter Shihouin Yoruichi's memory, so that she doesn't remember my claws. I think she saw them just now. See if Urahara Kisuke noticed them as well and do the same to him if he did. Otherwise leave their minds intact." Bezanthume said without looking over to Lilith, he was sure that Shihouin Yoruichi was still watching him. Lilith didn't even open her mouth to protest. She simply flew over to Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi and started using her magic. Bezanthume didn't even bother to pay attention to the words of her spell; it was not like he could use it if he memorized the whole thing. Demons and angels each had their own language and culture. And neither side wanted to have anything do with the other.

A small smile crept up on Bezanthume's lips. He hoped that he could remember his past with this angel called Lilith with more detail. He remembered bits and pieces and these pieces only showed that they had been very close in one point in time. That was fine and within his societies laws; the tainting of an angel was considered a great feat, but the emotions he felt within those memories seemed too sincere for it to be like that.

"So, now when that's done: What now? You have a plan, right?" Lilith asked and flew around his head in circles. He didn't know if she got hyper from using her magic or if she was just trying to piss him off, but he grabbed her and set her down on the ground all the same. Lilith started walking next to him and didn't interrupt Bezanthume's thoughts. He had to think this all through.

"You should go to Inoue Orihime's teacher's house and alter her memory, so that she thinks that there are two foreign exchange students transferring to her class tomorrow. We can take care of the rest of the school officials later." Bezanthume said and smiled wickedly. He sat down on a bench to wait for his body to process the hallowed tea he had consumed as Lilith flew off to the destination he had specified for her.

"Oh, I think this is going to be fun…"

**Orihime**

Where could they be? Orihime was getting worried about the fact that she hadn't seen or heard of Bezanthume since yesterday. She had waited late into the night. She didn't even want to think what Bezanthume could do if he found her asleep. She ultimately did fall asleep, but when she didn't find herself in a compromising position or garnished with new jewelry she had to think that Bezanthume hadn't come back during the night. Maybe Bezanthume and Lilith were both lying together in a bed somewhere after a night of…

Orihime blushed and decided not to think about it. It was bewildering enough to have him looming over her shoulder, but it would be almost unbearable if she had those kinds of things in her mind. Why was he hanging around her in the first place? Because of the contract he had made with her, to prevent her from ever being imprisoned in Las Noches? Was he doing something on that behalf right now?

Orihime shook those thoughts away, grabbed her bag and walked out the door. A bright summer day greeted her. She couldn't help but smile with the sun and a slight summer breeze grazing her skin while she walked. This might turn out to be a good day. A demon-free day if she was lucky.

She should have known better by now.

**Tatsuki**

Tatsuki sighed and sunk deeper into the water. She wasn't sure if this was helping, but at least it felt good. The water was steaming hot, but somehow it still seemed a little cold for her. She had thought that she had a fever when she got home last night and started feeling dizzy and lightheaded. She sat down and it subsided after a couple of minutes. The possibility that her symptoms might have been just a delayed response to what had almost happened to her earlier that evening crossed her mind.

But when her vision blurred and it started feeling like the blood in her veins had turned into a burning hot liquid she started to wonder if whatever was wrong with her mysterious savior could be contagious. He had said that it was an allergic reaction, but he could have been lying just as well. He had been rather quick to swat her hands away when she tried to help him. He had been sweating profoundly and she had touched his skin. She had not thought about it at the time and just wiped her hand on her skirt.

Well, she decided not to tell her parents just then. She would have to tell them about the attempted rape as well if she did that. She probably wouldn't be allowed to leave the house alone for weeks. Instead she decided to wait if it passed like the dizziness had before. After about ten minutes her body temperature seemed to return to normal and she changed into something more comfortable than her school uniform. She decided to do her homework at the kotatsu, since she felt kind of chilly. After she was done with the math homework she had to wrap herself in a blanket and check if the thermostat was broken or something.

When she started to shake from the cold while in the middle of her English homework she knew that she was just not feeling a bit chilly. She looked up at the clock on the wall of her room and was surprised to see how late it was. She was not tired at all; she was actually feeling quite full of energy, only if she wasn't so cold. Still not wanting to be under house arrest for weeks she snuck into the bathroom and decided to take a _really _hot bath. So, she stayed soaking in the tub for the remainder of the night, just a couple of hours actually, and the cold did gradually fade away. And she also noticed that the water didn't seem to get cold either, it was still steaming hot and she had been in the water for several hours. What exactly was happening here? Was she radiating heat like her mystery savior last night?

"Tatsuki, are you in there? Shouldn't you be getting ready for school? Are you alright?" Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door and the voice of her mother behind it. Was it that early already? Well, it would be about time for her to get out anyway. She was feeling like she had a low fewer, but her teeth didn't rattle against each other. Really now, did she catch some weird disease from that man or was this just a psychosomatic response to the emotional trauma of almost being raped?

She had been watching too much TV… She was thinking like a character out of a hospital drama. She got out of the water and pulled out the plug to drain the water while she dried her hair. To her great surprise most of the water on her skin had already evaporated. Was she really radiating heat like the guy from yesterday? She didn't even know his name and he already gave him a disease… Okay, that sounded so wrong.

This was just too damn weird! Was she really having the same symptoms as he had been suffering from last night from simply having a drop of his sweat on her hand? Sure, there were contagious diseases that could be transmitted through the skin, but this just… didn't feel like disease. She felt like she could punch her hand through a brick wall right now.

No, this didn't feel like a disease at all, it felt more like… a drug… Who the hell had saved her last night? She couldn't get him out if her mind. It was pretty damn hard to forget someone his size in the first place, but it wasn't his overall size that was bothering her even now, it was his eyes. They had seemed to be glowing and their forest green color completely clashed with his otherwise savage appearance. She couldn't get those eyes out of her mind.

Tatsuki tried to shake the image of those eyes out of her mind, wrapped the towel around her torso and opened the door of the bathroom. Her mother had just raised her hand to knock on the door again and she stepped back when Tatsuki opened the door.

"Good morning, Tatsuki." Her mother said while Tatsuki walked past her. Tatsuki waved her hand while walking away as a response. She also mumbled something that could be recognized as "Morning" if you stretched your imagination. She happened to glance at the clock and noticed that this would be the time she'd be waking up on a normal day. So she actually had spent that long in the tub trying to stabilize her body temperature? Seriously, she should be freaking out right now. Something like this was not supposed to happen to a normal high school student like her.

Tatsuki completed her morning routines giving a completely normal face to her parents. She answered them like she normally would, but when she stepped out of the door her hands were shaking too much for her to hold her bag anymore. What was wrong with her? Was the psychological trauma enough to cause something like this or was this part of her presumed symptoms? She didn't feel cold anymore, but she felt like there was a gaping hole inside her very soul that was spreading out until… until there would be nothing left of her.

Tatsuki took a deep breath and waited for her hands to stop shaking. The fact that she was affected by the fact that she seemed to be losing her ability to feel at all said that not all of it was lost. Why was she even sure that she was losing her emotions anyway? This will pass, like everything else has thus far.

She grabbed her bag and started running towards the school. She still felt like she could punch her hand through a wall. Every muscle in her body felt tense and ready to jump into action. When she arrived at her school she was out of breath, but her muscles weren't even slightly sore. She had only stopped running at a red light and didn't even slow down when running uphill.

She was scared.

**Orihime**

The day had been unusually peaceful today. She had arrived at school without Bezanthume appearing suddenly and Chizuru even seemed to be distracted by something, so she didn't get overly intimate with her. Chizuru just sat in her seat and stared out of the window. This was unusual for her, but Orihime didn't mind _not_ being molested on daily basis so she left Chizuru as she was. She sat down behind her desk and just watched the class gradually fill up with her classmates. She hadn't realized how much she had missed these kinds of small _normal _things. Small groups were formed around the classroom as friends talked about things relevant to them and laughed, giggled and teased each other very lively. It was all so very normal, all so very comforting for her bruised heart. She closed her eyes and listened to the voices of her classmates.

Yes, she understood now; any of it hadn't happened yet, everything is still normal now. There are no Arrancar, no Aizen, no Ulquiorra, no Grimmjow, no violence and no death. Not yet, and _he_ is going to make it so that there will never be. Bezanthume…

"What are you daydreaming about, Orihime?" Tatsuki's voice asked right next to her. Orihime was leaning her hand on her palms and looking out of the window. She did look like she was daydreaming about something and what was she daydreaming about, _Him_? She wasn't daydreaming about that demon right now, was she?

"No! It can't be! I was not! I was not, I tell you!" Orihime screamed and finally snapped out of her own private world. Everyone in the room was staring at her in slight surprise. Orihime laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head and everyone continued like nothing had happened. Tatsuki sighed and gave her a pat on the head.

"Good morning, Orihime." Tatsuki said and leaned on the desk next to Orihime's. Orihime looked up to her eyes and noticed that they looked… strained somehow. She couldn't really put her finger on it. Maybe she was just tired.

"Is everything alright, Tatsuki-chan? You look pale." Orihime said in a soft tone and stood up from her desk. She reached out to Tatsuki's head and placed her right hand on Tatsuki's forehead and her left on her own to check her temperature. Tatsuki's eyes looked surprised for a second and she tensed from her touch.

"Really, it's nothing…" Tatsuki said nervously and waited for Orihime to take her hand off of her forehead. There was no way that she wouldn't notice that she was radiating heat right now.

"You don't seem to have a fever though… Did you get any sleep last night? I'm sorry for keeping you so long, Tatsuki-chan." Orihime said and bowed her head in apology. Tatsuki was staring at her in surprise for some reason. Tatsuki put her own hand on her forehead and looked puzzled for a second. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a loud voice from just outside the classroom.

"Holy mother of god! You… You are…" The voice of Asano Keigo carried from the hall. Everyone turned their heads towards the door in surprise. What got him that fired up this time? There were sounds resembling Keigo choking on his own tongue before an almost melodic voice interrupted him.

"… I am… what?" A beautiful feminine voice asked in a puzzled tone. It might be overreacting, but it sounded like the voice of an angel. Chizuru was the first one in the doorway, but the rest of the students in the classroom were not far behind.

"You are the single most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes upon! I am yours to command, my mistress!" Keigo yelled from the top of his lungs and then threw himself on the floor in front of the girl's feet. To the spectators great surprise she didn't even look surprised from Keigo's behavior. She was smiling a small sweet smile and looking down to Keigo with something that seemed like child-like curiosity in her eyes.

"Well… Thank you, that was a sweet thing for you to say." Lilith said and turned her eyes to the crowd that had gathered. Her eyes met with those of a very shocked looking Orihime and she gave her a discreet wink and smiled a little wider. Orihime thought that she heard all the boys gathered in the crowd swallow in unison from the sensory overload of an angel's charm and natural beauty. Orihime glanced over to Chizuru and saw that she had her jaw hanging open and her eyes as wide as saucers. The crowd's stare was only broken when someone just as extraordinary appeared down the hall.

"Hey, did you find it?" An eight-foot tall man with slightly reddish black hair asked while walking up to the angelic newcomer. He didn't shout out his words, but he didn't have to; his incredibly low voice stood out from the noise of the hall nonetheless. The man had his hair tied back in a loose ponytail down his back and had tanned skin. His forest green eyes stood out from his features. He looked remarkably like Bezanthume, but a little too… human. He walked up to them and stopped next to Lilith and looked down to Keigo with his green eyes impassionate and cold.

"Who's this clown?" Bezanthume said in his low voice and the crowd saw how Keigo started to shiver from fear and sweat glistened on his face. He started stuttering and after a while he was able to let out a couple of comprehensible words.

"I– I'm– My name is Asano Keigo and I didn't mean to– Please don't hurt me!" Keigo screamed and slammed his face on the ground in an excessive apology. The man raised one slightly reddish brow and turned to Lilith. Lilith shrugged in response and turned to Keigo.

"He's not going to hurt you, silly! He's harmless as a– " Lilith said before Bezanthume was able to interrupt her.

"Continue that sentence and face the consequences, Lily." Bezanthume said in a dangerous tone. He reached down to the collar of Keigo's shirt and pulled him on his feet. "Would you stop groveling like a fucking worm already? You're making me feel uncomfortable." Bezanthume raised Keigo off the floor without any visible effort and then set him back on his feet calmly. When Keigo was able to stand on his own legs Bezanthume turned his whole attention to the crowd behind him. Orihime heard several girls in the group gathered to watch the scene gasp when Bezanthume turned his green eyes towards them. They were really… striking, to say the least.

"Now, before anyone asks, introductions are to be made when your teacher arrives. Good morning, ladies... and gentlemen." Bezanthume said and his eyes stopped at Orihime just for a second when he said this. Orihime just knew that he was trying to hold back a smirk right now. Why does he have to try and ruin every aspect of my life? And why did he have to speak in that way? He sounded like one of those… What were they called again, womanizers? Yeah, it was something like that. He sounded over-confident and… and… indifferent, lecherous, whatever! Damn it, how in god's name could he piss her off so much with so little effort?

"Oh, lighten up! What's so bad about introducing yourself twice?" Lilith said and nudged Bezanthume with her elbow. She took a step forward and cleared her throat to attract the crowd's attention.

"Good morning to you all. My name is Lily Copperwail and I am to be transferred into this school as of today. I hope we can learn to like each other in the days to come." Lilith bowed respectfully and then motioned for Bezanthume to introduce himself. Bezanthume turned his eyes away and ignored her completely. Lilith gave Bezanthume a glare that threatened him with something very painful very soon, but Bezanthume was sure to look at anything but the angel next to him.

"This timid little soul here is my cousin, Benjamin Copperwail. Even though he looks like he doesn't care about anything he is frequently used as a stepping ladder to save kittens from trees. His favorite color is –" Lilith's mouth was suddenly covered by the palm of Bezanthume's hand and she was dangling up in the air. Bezanthume moved his hand back and let go of Lilith, causing her to be thrown back a couple of feet.

"That's quite enough out of you, Lily. You shouldn't believe a word she just said. Yes, my name is Benjamin Copperwail, but as it comes to kittens and trees; a blatant lie." He didn't raise his voice at all when he said this; his voice was actually calm and his tone even, but still everyone present could sense how much he wanted to strangle the girl that had introduced herself as Lily Copperwail.

"What exactly is going on here?" Ochi Misato asked and made her way through the crowd of students. She stopped to stare at Bezanthume when she broke through the crowd. "Damn, you're huge… Oh, yeah! You two must be those transfer students!" Ochi Misato said and pointed an accusing finger at them. Bezanthume looked down to Lilith in search of an explanation, but she simply shrugged and pointed a finger towards Ochi Misato as well.

"Yes! Yes, we are! And you must be the teacher, Ochi Misato!" Lilith yelled enthusiastically, but kept a straight face. There was a moment when everyone in the hall was too dumbstruck to say anything and utter silence fell upon them. Ochi Misato was the first one to burst into laughter and Lilith was not far behind. They stumbled towards each other and then stood back to back to stay standing.

"What was so funny?" Someone asked in the crowd. No one knew what to do and they just stood there dumbstruck as their teacher laughed along with the transfer student. The other transfer student, the giant, seemed indifferent about the behavior of his cousin and his soon to be teacher. After the teacher calmed down they headed back into class and everyone took their seats as the transfer students stayed in front of the class for their official introduction.

**Tatsuki**

He was here, the guy from yesterday. He was standing there in front of her classmates in all his eight feet of glory and didn't look one bit sick. He didn't even seem to recognize her. He hadn't made eye contact with her even once. She hoped she wouldn't be forced to ask him to step out for a bit, but she really needed answers. Maybe that "allergic reaction" yesterday was violent enough for him to forget about her? He had seemed to be in quite a lot of pain. She had thought earlier that the unnatural strength to throw a grown man like a rag doll came from some drug he had taken, but now that she saw him in a short sleeved shirt… she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Today we have two new students transferring into our class. It seems like they were able to introduce themselves already, but let's hear it once more for the people that weren't there." Ochi Misato said and motioned for Lily to step up. She did just that and thrust her hand up above her head in an overly energetic greeting.

"Hi ya'll! My name's Lily Copperwail and it sure is nice to meet ya'll again! Let's have a whole bunch of fun and educational days!" Lily practically shouted out and finished her introduction in a wide smile. Every single one of Tatsuki's classmates had their jaws hanging wide open. Did she change somehow in the past few minutes? She was talking in a whole other dialect and now she was overly energetic and cheery. The other transfer student stepped up in turn and everyone focused their attention on him.

"I am Benjamin Copperwail and I hope you can excuse my cousin for her abnormal behavior. She hasn't been diagnosed with any known mental disease, but the least I can say that she is completely nuts. This, of course, is only my own view of the situation an– " Benjamin couldn't finish his sentence as he had to dodge a midair roundhouse kick aimed at his face.

"Shut your face, idiot!" Lilith yelled when landing gracefully back on the ground. If they were surprised about her sudden change of personality a minute ago, then now they were absolutely flagger blasted. Who was this girl? Tatsuki was sure that there were more than a few among her classmates that didn't know what happened because they blinked. Lily Copperwail was frighteningly fast and Benjamin Copperwail was impressive to be able to dodge a kick like that. Judging from the trained speed of the kick and the manner it was executed and to the way she was able to land without losing her balance Tatsuki estimated that Lily could have made some serious damage with that kick.

"Questions anyone?" Their teacher asked. Everyone raised their hands. Tatsuki could have sworn that she saw Benjamin sigh and she was sure that she saw Lilith smile a wicked smile.

**Chizuru**

Chizuru could not believe her luck. Lily was enrolling in her school and in her class nonetheless! This was great, absolutely great! And her speculation that the man that had carried her home last night was Lily's relative was confirmed. This Benjamin Copperwail was just the kind of guy her mother would call a "hunk": young, tall, dark, handsome and muscular beyond belief. He did look like he would be able to pick you up and pin you against a–

No! I'm not thinking about that! Damn you, mother! Why did you put that thought in my head? Chizuru clutched her head and kept her eyes from averting towards Benjamin Copperwail to make the images in her head go away. That was her mother's sexual fantasy, not hers. She was only interested in women, soft, kind and beautiful women. She was not interested in brutish, rude and rough men; that she knew for a fact.

"Where are you from?" someone asked. The voice snapped Chizuru out of her thoughts and made her remember where she was. They were questioning the transfer students right now. Chizuru thought she should at least listen to find out a little more about Lily. Lily was the first one to raise her hand up and answer, the huge man next to her kept quiet and he seemed to be looking at each of her classmates in turn with those green eyes. Even she had to admit, they really did make an impression. Gah! What am I thinking? Lily, look at Lily.

"Well, I'm from Finland. I was born and raised there, up until I moved to Japan about a year back. As for Benny-chan's country of origin goes… it gets a little complicated." Lily said and nudged Benjamin with her elbow.

"I was born in Finland as well, but that's about as far as it goes. I and Lily are family, but, well, as you can see we're not that closely related. I have lived most of my life traveling with my family and I've lived in ten different countries for more than a year and visited more than I care to count… I would rather not go into any more details." Benjamin said and continued to scan the class with his eyes. He stopped at each of them for about five seconds before turning his eyes to someone else. He was seemingly memorizing everyone's faces, but somehow Chizuru started feeling a vague feeling of dread for the moment when his eyes would eventually meet with hers. She saw something unsettling in those eyes and she reckoned that the "normal" girls found it appealing.

"How many languages do you speak?" Someone asked in turn.

"Three: Finnish, English and Japanese." Lily answered.

"Six: Spanish, English, Latin, Japanese, Finnish and German." Benjamin answered. This caused a slight murmur among her classmates, but it wasn't really that surprising if he had been living around the world like he had said. Chizuru had to admit that he certainly did seem… impressive, for a brute man, that is.

"What do you have to eat to get so big?" The shortest girl in the class asked them. Lily was taller than most of them, but this Benjamin was a giant, so it wasn't sure which one she was asking the question.

"Eat your vegetables and drink milk." Lily answered.

"Drink the blood of the innocent." Benjamin said in an even tone. Silence suddenly fell in the classroom and everyone just stared at Benjamin with their jaws hanging open. He sure didn't look like he was kidding, but he couldn't actually be serious… could he?

"You're not serious, are you?" The teacher asked in a shaky voice. Benjamin Copperwail turned his cold green eyes towards her and made her take an involuntary step back. He had very piercing eyes.

"Of course I'm not serious, haven't you people heard of sarcasm before? I don't know what you would have to eat to grow my size. I just happened to grow to this size. My parents were big as well, so it must be in the genes or something. And if you have no more questions I'll be taking my seat now." Benjamin said and let his gaze sweep across the classroom. Sure, they had questions, but they just didn't dare ask them. Benjamin Copperwail walked to the back of the class and sat down in an unoccupied desk. The teacher couldn't deny his logic on taking the seat in the back; no one could see the board if they were sitting behind him. Lily was directed to sit on the seat behind Orihime and she sat down without even sparing her a glance. Was she really a lesbian? Chizuru couldn't imagine someone who was interested in women wouldn't be drawn to Orihime.

**Bezanthume**

They were all so very weak. They would be easy to manipulate if needed and he knew that many of the girls in this class were interested in him at least to some degree. Arisawa Tatsuki had recognized him and was now trying to think of ways to get a chance to talk to him in private about something. He would have to dig a little deeper, since the reason she wanted to talk with him seemed interesting.

And of course there was the shell shocked Inoue Orihime sitting there and staring at him in surprise. This didn't draw that much attention, since she wasn't the only one. Honshou Chizuru was also watching him intently. It seemed like she had realized that he was the one to carry her home last night from what her mother had said. Speaking of her mother... He should think of a way to pay her back for that tea. He should also dig around Honshou Chizuru's mind to find out a little more about that damned woman.

Well, it looked like he had his work cut out for him, but where to start? Honshou Chiyo could probably wait, but the problems Arisawa Tatsuki seemed to be having seemed interesting in nature and to some extent connected with his contract with Inoue Orihime. It was not going to be a very pleasant experience for him if Arisawa Tatsuki were to be in mortal danger because of their little encounter last night.

"Okay, eyes in front everyone! It's time to dive into the exciting world of mathematics!" Ochi Misato yelled and everyone pulled out their books and notebooks out of their bags. Bezanthume reached into his and picked out the one that the person sitting next to him had pulled out and opened it in front of him. He had learned how to read the Japanese writing by diving through a couple of people last night. Things he had little if any interest in took a couple of tries to stick, but now he should have no problems in reading these weird and crude symbols.

He had intended to close his eyes to take a better look into Arisawa Tatsuki's mind, but he noticed to his great surprise that his eyelids were getting heavy just from listening to Ochi Misato teach them about equations and the ways they could be solved. It was not like he had ever actually had any classes even slightly resembling math, but if you wanted to cast even the simplest spell you had to have a nearly perfect understanding of the world around you, so the things Ochi Misato was talking about seemed so incredibly simple to him. Bezanthume glanced over to Lilith and noticed that she seemed very interested and was taking notes from time to time. Closer inspection would have shown what Bezanthume suspected her to be doing; drawing Ochi Misato naked and in various compromising poses. Now there was a raging nymphomaniac if there ever was one.

Bezanthume turned his attention away from both Ochi Misato and Lilith and turned his eyes towards Arisawa Tatsuki. He caught her looking towards him and saw her quickly turn her head back to face the teacher. She did not blush. Bezanthume closed his eyes and waited for the lights to appear and then focusing on the one that belonged to Arisawa Tatsuki. He replayed her memories of what happened last night after she got home and then cursed silently in his mother tongue. He had been leaking out more power than he had expected last night. There had actually been enough to affect Arisawa Tatsuki physically and if he left this unattended then her mind could crumble because of the imbalance in the harmony of the mind and body. What to do now? Should I wait until class is over or…?

Bezanthume turned his eyes to Ochi Misato and the equations and diagrams drawn on the board and then to his fellow classmates taking notes before finally glancing at Lilith drawing dirty pictures.

Oh, screw it! What's the worst that could happen? Bezanthume stood up and the clatter his chair made caused everyone to turn their attention to him. He ignored it and walked next to the desk Arisawa Tatsuki was sitting in. She was looking up to his eyes in surprise and her eyes widened even more when he bent down almost to eye level with her. Bezanthume gently pushed her chin back a little to compensate for their obvious difference in height before placing his lips over hers. He didn't close his eyes so he could notice her eyes becoming wide as saucers. He also noted that Arisawa Tatsuki's body temperature was significantly higher than a normal human's, but still lower than his. She had been smart to get into a bath to let her body expel the overdue heat generated, but still keep it high enough for her body to be able to undergo the transformation.

Bezanthume inhaled through his nose and then let a tiny amount of his power be infused with his breath. He opened his mouth while keeping it tightly against Arisawa Tatsuki's. He skimmed her lips with his tongue and waited for her to open her mouth.

**Tatsuki**

What the hell is going on here? He just suddenly walks up to me and starts kissing me? Who does this guy think he is? I'm going to… to…

He's so warm… The cold in my body seems to be melting away just from him being so close to me and his breath on my lips feels like fire. Fire was good, just the thing to warm her up, she had been cold for so long. She felt his tongue graze her lips and the warmth that spread through her body from the touch caused Tatsuki to open her mouth instinctively. She immediately felt how something that felt like liquid fire poured into her veins and her body felt like it was on fire yet again, but this time it was different from what she had felt last night. It wasn't painful to say the least… quite the opposite in fact.

"What the hell? Why is that guy still among the living?" Someone asked out loud.

"Now that's brave… Maybe we should have warned him?" Someone wondered out loud. Tatsuki couldn't make out who it was, but it was definitely a male voice. Now that she thought about it: What the hell was she doing? A guy comes up to you in the middle of class and starts making out with and she starts to get into it? That's just not her.

"Damn, did Arisawa just moan? That guy's got some serious skills… but he's still probably going to die for that." Someone that sounded a lot like Mizuiro said in an admiring voice.

**Orihime**

What the hell is he doing?! He can't just – He shouldn't – Why isn't Tatsuki doing anything? Was Bezanthume sucking out her soul or something? Orihime sat there with her mouth hanging open and tried to think of what to do. If Tatsuki wasn't in mortal danger she could handle herself just fine, but if Bezanthume was using some weird trick to immobilize her she should go and split them up, right?

Lilith! Yeah, Lilith's an angel so if she's okay with this it can't be anything life threatening. Orihime whipped her head around to Lilith and saw that her eyes were glued to Bezanthume and Tatsuki, but she didn't look like she was in a great hurry to break them up.

Orihime turned his eyes back to Bezanthume and Tatsuki and noticed that Bezanthume had lifted Tatsuki off of her chair and that she was now supported against her own desk. How long had he been doing that exactly? Orihime glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that it had only lasted for 6 seconds, but time had seemed to stretch in some weird way and it felt like Bezanthume had been at it for at least two minutes. Wait… this is _him _we're talking about. Maybe time had actually been stretched in some weird way.

"Lilith… Hey, Lilith…" Orihime whispered and leaned over her chair. Lilith seemed unwilling to avert her eyes from the show but did glance at her to signal that she had heard Orihime.

"What is it, Princess?" Lilith asked in a hushed voice while not averting her eyes from the show for one second. It was weird to hear Lilith calling her that, but did she even know her real name? They haven't actually been introduced.

"Do you know why Bezanthume is doing something like that? You two have a past, don't you?" Orihime asked Lilith. Lilith tapped her bottom lip a couple of times before answering her.

"He might just think that she's hot… and that she is. He _has _spent a millennium inside an orb, you know." Lilith said and a small smile crept up on her face. Somehow she reminded her of Bezanthume right then and there.

"What? You can't mean that he's going to – " Orihime exclaimed still in an hushed voice. No one would have paid any attention to her if she had yelled it out from the tops of her lungs, since even the teacher was too stunned to act. Bezanthume was really making a show of it. Seriously, why wasn't Tatsuki kicking his ass already? She almost killed Kon when he kissed her.

"Oh, relax already. He's not that talented in charms to get her to do that in public, but she sure is savoring it… Oh, there she goes… Damn it." Lilith said and crossed her arms in dissatisfaction. Orihime turned to the spectacle that was Bezanthume and her best friend and saw that Tatsuki was pushing Bezanthume away. Bezanthume took the hint and stepped back from her and left a heavily breathing and deeply blushing Tatsuki sitting on her desk. The whole class was dead silent while waiting on what exactly was going to happen next.

**Bezanthume**

"Hmm… Did you have strawberries for breakfast?" Bezanthume said while smirking and licking his lips. The ones sitting directly behind him got up and moved aside. He was so going to get it for that one.

"You're dead, you bastard!" Tatsuki yelled and landed a harsh looking kick in Bezanthume's gut. He hunched down a little from the surprise attack and dodged the next kick. Tatsuki jumped down from her desk and kept on trying to hit him. When Bezanthume retreated out of her reach she grabbed a desk with one hand and threw it at Bezanthume without stopping. Bezanthume grabbed the desk and set it back down on the ground with one fluid motion, but it had distracted him enough for Tatsuki to jump up in the air and smash her knee on his face. Bezanthume was knocked back and lost his balance.

Tatsuki's and Bezanthume's fight had continued up to the front of the class and then when they were about to run down the teacher, that still hadn't done anything to stop the two of them, Bezanthume had turned to the side. Right after that decision Tatsuki had thrown the desk and then caused him to lose his balance. Now, if he just would have turned right towards the door and the hall, then he losing his balance wouldn't be that bad and he would just stumble into the hall.

But he had turned left, towards the window and was now stumbling towards it. If he hadn't been falling already he would have been too tall to fall through the window frame, but now that he was falling backwards he fit just barely through the window, but his frame did cause the window frame to bend out of shape and the glass to shatter. Now, there was also the fact that it was a hot summer day and the window he fell through was open and if it had been closed he would have had enough time to react in time.

But as it was, when he noticed that he was falling out of the window he was already halfway outside and couldn't save himself from the fall without using his wings and he was trying to pass off as a human, so that was out of the question. He could turn invisible and then use them, but a sudden disappearance wouldn't be at all suspicious, now would it?

Damn, this was going to be bothersome…

**Well, I'm a sucker for cliffhangers and I would have liked to post this before it got too long. Bye! Review.**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


	11. Omake Chapter Two, part 1

**Yes, another Omake chapter and yes, it is a sign that I have a case of the writer's block. I wouldn't call this an Omake actually, this is more like a crossover actually. I just felt like doing this and it got dragged on to be quite long... Well, I hope you like it. **

**P.S: Anyone who guesses what anime/manga the part 2 will be about is going to get a permission to eat a cookie, since I can't actually give you one.  
**

* * *

**Omake Chapter Two, part 1**

**Of youkai and akuma**

"**Seriously, Lilith, fuck off!" **Orihime heard Bezanthume's roaring voice through the door. She had heard Lilith mention that they had rented out the open apartment next to hers and had decided to visit them.

"Just tell me what you're doing and I'll be glad to! Come on, just let me have one little peek, pleeeeaaaseee!" Lilith's angelic voice whined. Orihime thought if she had come at a bad time and hesitated a little before finally knocking. The speed in which Lilith rushed to open the door was inhuman.

"Oh, perfect! You can order Bezanthume to tell me what the hell he's doing." Lilith said and yanked Orihime into the apartment. It had been weird to hear that they were sharing an apartment, but when she asked Bezanthume about it he said that Lilith was not someone to leave on her own, for the good of everyone else. Then Lilith had told her not to worry, since they weren't fucking each other's brains out. That had been one of the most uncomfortable discussions she had ever had, almost in par with her brother's speech about the birds and the bees.

"Come on, I have Orihime, so you'd better tell me what you're – " Lilith shouted as she kicked a door down with complicated decorative runes drawn in its frames. Orihime had a bad feeling about this, since she knew what Bezanthume's runes and doors combined could do and she tried to stop Lilith before she stepped over the threshold, but her momentum made both of them stumble through. They were both shocked that they were now floating in complete darkness. Even the light that should have come from the apartment they were just in was gone; they were even unable to see each other. Orihime could only be sure that Lilith was there because they were holding hands.

"Are you there, Lilith? What's going on? What happened?" Orihime asked with her voice turning into frantic babbling. She felt Lilith's grip tighten and her breathing getting hurried. "Lilith, what's wrong?" Orihime asked and pulled herself closer to Lilith's body. It was relieving to know that she was there with her.

"**I thought I told you to fuck off, Lilith… Why did you have to bring the Princess in here?" **Bezanthume's rumbling voice said from behind them and an ominous red light lit both Lilith and Orihime. Orihime spun around in the darkness she was floating in and saw Bezanthume with his eyes glowing bright red and his wings also glowing brightly behind them. He was the only source of light in the endless darkness they were in. Orihime opened her mouth to ask about what was wrong with Lilith, but Bezanthume interrupted her before she could say a word by holding his hand up.

"**Brace yourself, Princess." **Bezanthume said in a calm manner and then stepped right next to Lilith and Orihime. Orihime was about to ask what he was talking about and what he was going to do when the darkness was torn apart and reality rushed towards them with crushing force. Right before impact Orihime noticed that a circle drawn out of some very artistic and complicated looking runes and symbols started shining a blinding red light under their feet. Orihime closed her eyes as the crushing weight of reality crashed upon them.

But still felt no impact. She kept her eyes closed and kept on waiting to be crushed to death, but finally opened her eyes when she heard birds singing and wind blowing. She opened her eyes to see that she was falling towards to what looked like a rice field while Bezanthume was strangling Lilith next to her. The ground was rushing towards her frighteningly fast.

She started screaming at Bezanthume for him to save her, but she hit the water before he could react.

**Bezanthume**

Well, Inoue Orihime sure knows how to panic. Even though they were falling towards the ground at a speed that even a feeble human would survive she started screaming for him to save her. He decided to ignore her and stopped his own fall with his wings while Inoue Orihime made a big splash in a field covered with water. Had there been a flood or something? No, it seemed like the flooded area had been purposefully filled with water, so there had to be a purpose behind it. Well, that didn't matter anyways, back to strangling Lilith for her stupidity. Bezanthume turned his eyes back to his hands and noticed that Lilith had disappeared. She had always been good at running away.

"Why didn't you do anything, Bezanthume?" Inoue Orihime asked while rubbing her butt. She had landed on her back, but her butt had taken the brunt of the impact. That's what you get for having… No, he was not going to think about that.

"**Oh, would you look at that, you're actually alive." **Bezanthume said and smirked in a way that she knew that would piss her off. He saw her eyes flash with anger and that she was clenching her fists by her side, but she calmed down before doing anything, true to her nature. Maybe she knew that he was trying to get a reaction out of her and contained herself? Nah, she's just too kind to lose her temper.

"How did we get here?" Inoue Orihime asked and stood up from the ankle deep water. Her T-shirt was clinging onto her skin and her bra was clearly showing through. If Bezanthume would have had a little less self-restrain he probably would have done something more than grin. Lilith had no such self-control and she suddenly appeared behind Inoue Orihime and grabbed her breasts from behind.

"I didn't notice it before, but you're tits are amazing, Orihime! Mind if I cob a feel? Oh yeah, I probably should have said that before groping you, right? Well, we're all friends here…" Lilith proceeded to massage Inoue Orihime's breasts while rubbing her own cheek against Orihime's. Now Bezanthume knew where Lilith was and could continue punishing her, but should he really interrupt them? Bezanthume turned his attention away from the two of them and surveyed their surroundings. It certainly did seem like they had been thrown into a completely different realm of existence because of Lilith's interruption. The air smelled wrong and the lights he saw when he closed his eyes didn't all seem human.

"Wah! Stop, Lilith, please! Ah! What are you – Gah! Stop… Please…" Inoue Orihime gasped out. It was clear that Lilith was using some kind of charm to excite the girl and he would be forced to separate them before Lilith would get the bright idea to have a snack. Bezanthume ascended higher and surveyed the roads crossing around the closed off flooded areas. He saw just one group of travelers on the roads. They looked rather interesting. One of them was wearing loose red robes and had long silvery hair and what looked like dog ears coming out of the top of his head. One seemed to be a monk with a staff that jingled as he walked. There was a woman wearing traditional Japanese clothing, but with something that looked like a giant boomerang tied to her back and a small fox-like creature with two tails and red eyes following close behind. Then there was something that he had not expected to see; A girl wearing a japanese school uniform and with a pink bicycle by her side. The sudden appearance of Inoue Orihime inside his reality void had forced him to hastily cast a protective spell and his powers were greatly depleted. Maybe there was someone innocent enough in that party, so that he wouldn't be forced to snatch a child somewhere, or bite Inoue Orihime. Bezanthume closed his eyes and focused on the group. The school girl's light was exceptionally pure and bright. Now that was lucky, the others around her had strong and bright lights, but they were all tainted to some extent. He also noticed that the guy wearing the red robes had a yellowish light, so he was part demon or part angel, an interesting little group indeed.

"**Stop that, Lilith. We should get out of this field and onto that road." **Bezanthume said in a calm voice and gave Lilith a threatening look to stop her from getting any bright ideas about playing with Inoue Orihime. Lilith let go of Inoue Orihime's breasts with a sour look and stepped away from her. Inoue Orihime let out a small moan and hurried to catch her breath. Lilith must have used a rather strong charm for it to have such an effect when the connection was severed. Inoue Orihime was blushing deeply, but wasn't too bewildered to not follow after Bezanthume as he flew over to the road. He looked to his right and saw that the group he had seen earlier was coming their way and activated the spell that hid his presence. They didn't seem to have noticed him yet, they were too focused on arguing with each other. Lilith flew over next to him and also activated her own spell to hide herself. Bezanthume helped Inoue Orihime up to the road and then turned to the group of people making their way towards them.

"What's your problem this time?" The dog guy with red clothes said while running along the bicycle the school girl was riding. The rest of their group ran to catch up to the two. Bezanthume had been able to find out that the girl was called Higurashi Kagome and the Halfling in red was called Inuyasha. Right now Higurashi Kagome stopped her bike, looked around, noticed Inoue Orihime and ran to her without giving Inuyasha any kind of explanation.

"You fell from the sky just now, didn't you?" Kagome asked and stepped right up to Inoue Orihime's face. Inoue Orihime took a step back and glanced at both Bezanthume and Lilith for advice. Both of them thought that it would be more amusing to see what she would come up on her own and looked away.

"Uhm… Yes… I did…" Inoue Orihime said and scratched the back of her head, laughing nervously. Bezanthume noted that the rest of their group caught up to the two and that there was a glint in the monk's eyes when he saw Inoue Orihime, but somehow Bezanthume was unable to see how he was able to get himself right next to Inoue Orihime in an instant.

"That must have been a terribly taxing experience for you, young maiden. Now, we must get you out of those wet clothes… before you fall ill." The guy wearing monk's robes said and placed his free hand on Inoue Orihime's shoulder. He had slipped his left hand on Inoue Orihime's palm at some point. Bezanthume was recalling different ways to dislocate his arms and break his fingers when a giant boomerang was slammed on the monk's head.

"Put a sock in it, Miroku!" The girl with the boomerang said and hit the monk as many times it took for him to let go of Inoue Orihime. Bezanthume counted three. Inoue Orihime looked puzzled and her eyes shot back and forth between Inuyasha and Higurashi Kagome. She raised a shaky finger towards Inuyasha and opened and closed her mouth for a second.

"Inuyasha! You're Inuyasha, aren't you?" Inoue Orihime asked in a shaky voice. There was a dangerous glint in her eyes and her body was shaking from excitement. She turned her finger to the people present in turn. "And you're Kagome" She pointed at the girl in the school uniform. "You're Sango" She pointed to the girl with the boomerang. "And the lecher must be Miroku, right?" Inoue Orihime finished her round of reversed introductions and her eyes sparkled from joy.

"How do you know so much about us?" The girl called Kagome asked and took a step back from Inoue Orihime. Inuyasha moved his right hand to the hilt of his sword and kept his eyes intently on Inoue Orihime. The others in his group followed his example and put their hands on their weapons. Bezanthume knew that they had no idea why Inuyasha was so cautious, but it seemed like they trusted his judgment.

"Are you kidding? I'm such a fan! I've read everything about you! I can't believe I'm really here! This is like a…" Inoue Orihime stopped and then spun around towards Bezanthume. "This is real, right? This is not a dream or something, right?" Inoue Orihime asked Bezanthume. The group of people she seemed to be so intimately familiar with looked at where Bezanthume was standing with puzzled looks and grasped their weapons a little tighter. To them it seemed like this girl was talking to thin air. Was Inoue Orihime really oblivious to all this? They would probably attack her if he didn't do something soon, but now he would like to know what made this Inuyasha so suspicious. Was he able to sense him in some way perhaps?

"Something doesn't smell right about all of this… Girls do not just fall from the sky – " Inuyasha said and paused to let Miroku interrupt him.

"A man can dream…" Miroku said in a dreamy voice. The girl with the boomerang, Sango, hit him over the head with her fist. Bezanthume walked closer to Inuyasha and saw him get more alert and grasp the hilt of his sword tighter. Interesting, he really could sense him somehow, but how? He had mentioned something about something not smelling right, so did he smell him then?

"What's wrong, you guys?" Inoue Orihime asked with innocence sparkling in her eyes from the people that were very wary of her. This caused for anyone but Inuyasha loosen the grip on their weapons a little. They just couldn't imagine that someone like Inoue Orihime could hurt a soul. Inoue Orihime had no idea why they were so on edge, so Bezanthume decided to enlighten her. It was not like he could stay invisible when Inuyasha could smell him, there'd be no point.

"**This Inuyasha here can smell me and I reckon that the smell is more than threatening in his opinion." **Bezanthume said and was slightly surprised when Inoue Orihime hit her palm with her fist and made an "Oh!" sound.

"Yeah, I forgot you're a demon… Could you show yourself to them now, Bezanthume?" Inoue Orihime said and failed to notice that Inuyasha drew his sword at the mention of a demon and so did the rest of his group. Bezanthume walked over to the girl that was called Kagome and leaned down until he was on eye-level with her. He could just drink her blood now, but what would be the fun in that. The rest of her group had positioned themselves in front of her to protect her so when he turned visible again, only Kagome saw him right away. Bezanthume saw her eyes spread as wide as saucers and she took a step back before screaming and stumbling to the ground.

"Get away from her!" Inuyasha screamed and swung his huge and weird looking sword at Bezanthume. Bezanthume slapped the blade to the side with the back of his left hand and then grabbed him by the neck with his right. This Inuyasha had been stupid enough to launch at him in the air and then swing the sword straight down. If you avoid the edge, then a sword is nothing but a piece of metal and easy to avoid. He grabbed the huge sword before Inuyasha could get a chance to use it again and then dropped Inuyasha to the ground while holding the weird sword between his index finger and middle finger by the blade. He had been surprised to see the sword's blade transform into the overly large form it was in now, but he was more surprised to see that it didn't seem to be made out of steel anymore; it looked more like bone of some kind. He placed his foot on Inuyasha's chest when he was planning to get up and use his claws. He put weight on the foot on the dog boy's chest, so that he wouldn't scratch him. On hindsight: Maybe he would have been better off appearing behind Inoue Orihime for example.

"Take this!" The girl called Sango yelled and Bezanthume noticed that the huge boomerang she had been carrying was flying towards him. He had no time to dodge it so he charged the red lines on his right wing with energy and then spread it in front of his chest as a shield. The energy could be released controllably from the tips of his wings, but the lines of feathers were still just as charged and the energy would react to any outside influences and counter the energies trying to upset the balance. In other words: His wings worked as a shield that repelled any object struck against it if he was not releasing the energy controllably. The seemingly wooden boomerang was shot up in the air and started glowing crimson red from the excessive heat pouring out from his wings. Okay, that boomerang was definitely not made out of wood. Bezanthume spread out his wing and let out the built up energy from the tip of his wing and knocked both the monk and this Sango girl into the air.

"**Why did you attack me exactly, because I didn't want to be split in half by this little doggie here?" **Bezanthume said in a calm tone and stepped off of Inuyasha's chest. He ruffled the feathers of his wings and retracted them into his back and dropped the dog boy's sword next to his head. The monk and Sango landed on their feet and grasped their weapons again. They were surprised to see Bezanthume standing there without his wings and with his eyes of forest green instead of bright red. He was holding his hands up as a sign of surrender and had a mocking smirk on his lips. **"I am a demon, but I wish you no harm. I have done nothing but protect myself and by the fact that you're travelling with a halfling yourself I reckon that you should not be the judgmental type."**

"You bastard!" Inuyasha growled and grabbed his sword again. Bezanthume turned his eyes to this stupid dog and was prepared to incinerate him and his stupid bone sword in a flash of flames of hell.

"Sit!" The girl called Higurashi Kagome yelled and Inuyasha was slammed down on the ground face first with great force. Bezanthume let out a low chuckle and glanced at Higurashi Kagome in surprise. She could do that? He had noticed that the necklace on Inuyasha's neck had glowed right before he was slammed to the ground, so it was probably an enchantment that distorted gravity in a small area momentarily. This world was truly interesting. To make that kind of spell set into something like a necklace indefinitely took a great deal of power. They were usually demons' and angels' specialty. Bezanthume walked over to where Inoue Orihime was standing stupefied to make them calm down a little.

"**I am currently bound to this girl here and act according to her wishes. And since it looks like she is intimately familiar with you, killing you would be out of the question, so please refrain from attacking me or her in any way." **Bezanthume said and then gave them a warm smile that was only possible for him when he was in his human form. **"You can abuse Lilith as much as you want though." **He said while still smiling.

"Who's Lilith?" Sango asked and got her answer when Lilith appeared right behind her and grabbed Sango's breasts like she had done to Inoue Orihime just a minute ago. Sango blushed immediately and started breathing heavily, so Lilith must have been using the same charm she had used on Inoue Orihime. The monk was right next to them, but didn't seem to be in a hurry to separate the surprising angelic beauty from the woman he had feelings for. Inuyasha was also surprised to see Lilith appear, but didn't rush in to separate Lilith from Sango. He just stared with his mouth hanging open.

"SIT!" Higurashi Kagome yelled and Inuyasha was embedded in the ground along with a great big flash of light. It seemed like the force of the gravitational pull depended on the volume of the command. Higurashi Kagome then rushed over to where Lilith and Sango were entangled and forced them apart. Lilith just seemed more than happy to have another girl join in, but a murderous look from Bezanthume made her restrain herself.

"Benny, you're no fun! Just let me play with this one a little while, please?" Lilith said and then nibbled Sango's earlobe playfully. Now that Lilith was not using the charm to immobilize and excite Sango she got punched in the jaw, hard. Sango was a trained demon slayer and her punches really did hurt when she wished them to.

Well, how was she supposed to know that there was a little bit of a masochist in Lilith? Lilith shot up and gave Sango a radiant smile while flapping her wings in excitement. She grabbed the hand Sango had used to hit her and pressed it against her cheek lovingly. Miroku and Inuyasha could do nothing but stare when she slipped a finger inside her mouth and made a moaning sound. Sango blushed deeply and jerked her hand away, Miroku's mind overheated and he fell on his back with a nosebleed, Inuyasha got another "SIT!" order before he could do anything and Lilith was, well, happy. Bezanthume could only laugh at the scene in front of him. This caused even Inoue Orihime's impressive patience break and he got hit in the gut by her right fist. He was knocked back from the force of the strike and noticed that it had actually hurt, hurt _him, _a demon.

"**What the hell was that, Princess?" **Bezanthume asked while getting up from the ground. It had felt like there had been a force equivalent to 2 tons of pressure behind her fist. It had felt almost exactly like being hit by a wrecking ball. Had Inoue Orihime had that power before? No, he was sure that she would have used it if she had it back in Las Noches. She had been desperate enough for that back when he had found her. She had hit me with her right hand, the hand were the ring he had given to her was. Bezanthume reached into his coat and pulled out one of the spare rings he had to take a closer look at the spell engraved in the inside of it.

"You're the one that started all of this with that stunt you played with Kagome! I know you're a demon, but why do you insist on making my life so… Bezanthume, are you listening to me?" Inoue Orihime yelled sounding genuinely pissed off. Bezanthume focused his attention on deciphering the symbols and runes inscribed on the inside of the ring. According to the blood scripture Inoue Orihime had received a part of his power directly and indefinitely attached into her soul and mind. If she happened to be too weak of mind to control that power, then it had to be sealed away until the contract was fulfilled, but if that was the case Inoue Orihime shouldn't have the power to knock a demon off his feet. What worried Bezanthume were the two remaining options that would explain Inoue Orihime's new powers.

"I said: _ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, BEZANTHUME?" _Inoue Orihime screamed with her voice changing into a booming shriek. Bezanthume turned his attention away from the ring between his fingers and looked at Inoue Orihime in surprise. Her gray eyes had turned to shine in a pale pink light and her previously orange hair was now deep red. Bezanthume felt a foreign murderous intent in Inoue Orihime's mind and didn't recognize her thoughts. Possession of some sort maybe? No, the light of her mind was blazing fiercely, but it hadn't changed. This was still Inoue Orihime. Inoue Orihime raised her right hand slowly and pointed her open palm towards Bezanthume. She was going to do something right now, but if he moved from where he was now, then she could accidently hurt these people she was so fond of. Guess who would be forced to clean up that mess…

Inoue Orihime clenched her right hand into a fist and Bezanthume felt immense pain inside his chest. Smart girl, she's going right for the heart. Bezanthume staggered and then crashed down on one knee holding his chest and breathing heavily. This was not something that was fatal for him, or even something that would stop him from killing Inoue Orihime. He knew of countless ways to stop Inoue Orihime, but the trouble was to do it without mortally wounding her. Inoue Orihime let out a mocking laughter that didn't sound anything like her normal self.

"_What? Is this really it? And here I thought that you were invincible, a real knight in blood-stained armor and all that! You are pathetic, Bezanthume! You saved me by using Ulquiorra's power, but you're an utter weakling on your own!" _Inoue Orihime screamed in her unnatural voice. Bezanthume noted that Inuyasha and Co. were unsure as to what to do in this situation and had their hands on their weapons. Sango had seemingly been able to retrieve her boomerang from where it had landed. Inuyasha was getting up from an indentation his body had made on the ground and was grasping his sword. He looked a lot more hesitant to attack Inoue Orihime than him. The guy wearing monk's robes was… Bezanthume had almost forgotten about him actually.

"**You, the monk… attack her, now." **Bezanthume said in a pained voice. Now that he thought about it, he had been getting hurt a lot lately around Inoue Orihime. Was this karma finally catching up to him or something? He saw this Miroku guy hesitate in attacking Orihime and started to growl instinctively. He really, _really _wanted to rip their hearts out. Actually, the only thing stopping him was that Inoue Orihime would not like it, but Inoue Orihime wasn't quite herself right now… Okay, I had enough! Change of plans!

Bezanthume shot up and leaped over to where the monk was standing and grabbed the staff he was carrying before he could do anything. He stepped back and then used the end of his little staff and hit him in the forehead. He felt the staff starting to burn his skin and turned back to Inoue Orihime. She was turning around towards him and Bezanthume jumped up in the air before she was able to point that hand of hers towards him. If she were to pick her target to be something that would force a transformation he was not sure he could complete his contract. Bezanthume saw how Inoue Orihime turned around to face the place he had been just a second ago and how she clenched her fist without seeing if he was still there. The Sango girl reacted to his assault on Miroku by throwing her boomerang at him. The boomerang imploded on its self and became nothing but an orb of fine powder floating in mid-air as it flew into the area where Bezanthume had been standing just a second ago. The power Inoue Orihime was able to direct through that ring was truly frightening.

Bezanthume landed behind Inoue Orihime, grabbed her right hand and raised her off the ground. The key for her to control that power was her right hand, so if he were to capture it, then she should be harmless. Bezanthume placed the staff that was burning into his skin to touch the silver ring on Inoue Orihime's right hand. The hallowed object should disrupt the spell placed on the ring and thus extinguish the fire that burned within Inoue Orihime right now.

"_No! You bastard, don't you dare! You have a contract with me! I own you, demon! Let me go, Bezanthume!" _Inoue Orihime's hair was already changing back into its usual shade of orange and the pale pink light of her eyes was dimming. _"I… I will…" _Inoue Orihime's unnatural voice faded out and her eyes returned back into the steel gray ones and her hair was a warm shade of orange again. Bezanthume dropped her to the ground and then ripped the hallowed staff off of the skin of his hand. It had already seared right though his skin and pieces were scorched on to the surface of the staff itself. Damn, it hurt. His left hand was unusable now and he was bleeding to boot. This was just fucking perfect.

"Are you… Are you okay?" Higurashi Kagome asked and took a hesitant step forward. Bezanthume saw the worry in her eyes and had to wonder how bad it looked and why the hell would she care. He noticed that his vision was getting blurry and there was still an immense pain inside his chest. He fell down on his knees and held his left hand against his chest. He really hated being in a human body in moments like this. He closed his eyes and focused on reconstructing his heart before he would lose consciousness.

"What do you think you're doing, Kagome? Stay away from him, he's dangerous!" Inuyasha yelled and Bezanthume heard running footsteps coming towards him. He had his eyes closed and he could see the light of the minds of Higurashi Kagome and Inuyasha. He felt a hand on his left shoulder and didn't react. The hand belonged to Higurashi Kagome and he couldn't imagine her to be able of hurting him.

"Oh, shut up, Inuyasha! Didn't you see what he did just now?" Higurashi Kagome snapped at Inuyasha. What _had _he done right now? "He sacrificed his own life to save this girl without hurting her. He clearly cares greatly for her, so he can't be all bad" Bezanthume raised an eyebrow. That was her reasoning for approaching a wounded demon? Wow, she was as much of a saint as Inoue Orihime and just as stupid to boot.

**Inuyasha**

Well, there was certain logic in Kagome's words, but Inuyasha couldn't get over how dangerous this guy smelled. He had been able to smell the presence of a powerful youkai when he was nowhere to be seen, but when he suddenly appeared right in front of Kagome the smell overwhelmed his senses and his instincts screamed for him to run away. Inuyasha wasn't sure if his friends could sense how incredibly powerful this demon was, but by the way they acted he had to say that they didn't.

In the past his sense of smell had been able to distinguish if there was anyone around and who had passed by, but hadn't worked as a gauge to measure a youkai's strength. This time it seemed different. This Bezanthume smelled so thoroughly like a demon that it was completely unnatural. In this world there were many kinds of demons and every single one had a distinctive smell, but there was also a trait in the smells of every youkai that they shared and how he could tell a youkai apart from any other beast. Bezanthume smelled solely of that common trait and that caused his hair to stand on edge.

But as Kagome had said: This demon had just risked its own well being to keep them all unharmed and had gained several very painful looking wounds in the process. By the way his left hand was burned by Miroku's staff he must have a weakness against purifying techniques. Sure, Inuyasha didn't like them and any kind of hallowed thing made him sneeze, but this guy was aggressively allergic or something. Still, he had grabbed MIroku's staff and held onto it until it burned straight into his flesh to save his busty little friend. If nothing more he was an unnaturally kind demon.

"Get away from me! What's wrong with you? You're worse than Miroku!" Sango screamed while riding Kilala around the sky and was trying to slash at Lilith with her sword whenever she got close. Her boomerang had been reduced to fine powder now, so she couldn't attack Lilith as efficiently as she would have liked. Lilith was flying around Kagome and trying to get close enough to grab her. She had not been hit by Sango's blade yet and judging by the ease she flew around the sky she was not going to be. Who exactly were these people? One smelled like the single most threatening demon he had ever encountered, the other had the power to crush Sango's boomerang and the third looked like an angel, but acted like Miroku.

"Come on, I promise you'll love it! You're young, you're supposed to be experimenting with your sexuality, cutie!" Lilith yelled and was able to grab Sango from behind and sit behind her on Kilala's back. "Oh, these aren't that bad either…" Sango tried to impale Lilith by stabbing the sword behind her back, but Lilith was already in the air and out of her reach. Inuyasha glanced at Miroku and saw that he had his eyes intently on the two fighting it out in the air.

"Shouldn't you do something, Miroku?" Inuyasha growled to Miroku. Miroku didn't turn his attention away from Lilith trying to molest Sango, but answered Inuyasha after a few seconds.

"They're too close for me to use my wind tunnel. What do you expect for me to be able to do?" Miroku said and watched as Lilith grabbed Sango yet again, this time she forced the sword out of Sango's hand and then kept on groping her. Inuyasha had to admit, Lilith looked incredibly beautiful when she smiled and the sight of her groping, fondling, nibbling, licking and kissing Sango was not without its own appeal.

It took a second for Inuyasha to acknowledge that there was a pair of hands fondling his ears, yet again. Inuyasha turned around to face the girl the demon had worked so hard to save from herself. She had her hands on his ears and was rubbing them with her fingers and scratching him behind the ear. As much as he hated to admit it, he liked it when people did that and the pleasant scent of flowers from this girl didn't encourage him to stop her anytime soon.

"SIT!" Kagome yelled and he was slammed on to the ground yet again. He groaned and didn't even bother to ask why she did that this time. It was not like the answer would make the least bit of sense anyways.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I just couldn't help myself. I always wondered what that felt like…" The girl said and laughed nervously while scratching the back of her head. Her hand stopped slowly and her smile faded away. She shook her head and looked around like she didn't know where she was. She turned around slowly to see Bezanthume on his knees and clutching his left hand against his chest. He had his wings out and was breathing slowly. He had his eyes closed and the light of his wings was dimmed a little.

"What… Bezanthume… Why is he… how… who…" Her words trailed off into nothing and she rose her hands up slowly and clutched her own head. "Who… Me? I couldn't… I wouldn't…" She fell down to her knees and hugged herself and watched Bezanthume intently. He opened his eyes and stared right back at Orihime for a second.

"**Well, that took longer than expected. I must say that I am surprised that you were able to inflict so much damage to my body that it took this long to repair…" **Bezanthume got up on his feet and stretched his wings out at the same time as stretching his arms. He yawned and then finally looked down to Orihime. **"Huh? What's wrong, Princess?"**

His red eyes narrowed as he turned them to Inuyasha. Inuyasha was petrified by the sheer murderous intent in those eyes. Bezanthume turned his eyes back to the girl after a couple of seconds and Inuyasha felt like he could move again. Bezanthume's eyes dimmed and somehow became less threatening and almost soothing as he bent down to one knee and raised the girl's chin, careful not to cut her skin with his very sharp looking claws.

"**Seriously, Princess, what's wrong now? Why are you crying?" **Bezanthume asked in a hushed voice. His voice was a booming rumble nonetheless, but it was less unsettling than his normal voice. Kagome stepped over to Inuyasha's side and grabbed the sleeve of his red kimono absent mindedly. Inuyasha turned over to her and saw that she had tears glistening in her eyes. He opened his mouth to state the obvious question: Why was _she _crying, but was interrupted by Kagome's hand slapped on his mouth before he could get a word out.

"I… I hurt you. I don't know what came over me… I'm despicable!" Orihime screamed and turned her head to the side to avoid eye contact with Bezanthume. Inuyasha glanced over at Kagome and saw that she had her free hand in front of her mouth. Was she treating this as a show or something? She certainly seemed like she was savoring it.

"**So, that's it? You hurt me and you're all torn up? Damn, you should be proud that you were even able to hurt someone like me, not get depressed or something…" **Bezanthume watched the Orihime girl keep on crying for three seconds before grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at him. **"Look, I'm all fine now, so stop crying already. Besides, you can hurt me all you want, but there isn't a chance that I'll ever leave your side, Inoue Orihime."**

Inuyasha heard both Kagome and this Orihime girl gasp at his words and also noticed that Orihime's tears had stopped flowing, but Kagome's had started. She had big teardrops running down her cheeks. Orihime was staring at Bezanthume with her eyes wide open from shock and Kagome was squinting hers while the tears flowed. Inuyasha understood less than nothing right now.

"Get the fuck off me, you lecherous whore!" Sango screamed and tried to shake Lilith off of her. Lilith just smiled and placed her lips over Sango's and kept on groping her breasts. Sango didn't fight much after that, actually she seemed to get into it and Lilith wrapped her wings around them. Kilala landed next to Kagome and Inuyasha, since she didn't know what she could do about the pair making out on her back. Lilith suddenly detached her own lips from Sango's and turned to all of them with excitement burning in her eyes.

"Hey, I have a great idea! Let's go to one of those hot springs you people are always fussing on about! Yeah, I'm such a genius!" Lilith jumped off of Kilala's back and started chanting a spell in a singing voice while drawing signs in the air in an inhuman speed. The air around them suddenly started to shimmer and then the earth shook violently. As Lilith kept on chanting the spell the earth shook more violently and pure white light flooded to cover everything around them. Lilith ended her spell and spread her arms as in receiving raging applauses from a crowd only she could see and they were suddenly standing at a natural hot spring somewhere in the middle of the woods.

"So, let us girls get naked, jump in and wash each other! That means that _you _will have to leave!" Lilith said and drew a quick symbol in the air and Inuyasha and Miroku were thrown back through the trees and landed in a clearing under the hill the hot spring was located on. Inuyasha and Miroku got up and wondered why Bezanthume didn't get thrown out. He walked out of amongst the trees a moment later.

"**She can be as harsh as she wants with you, but she won't be able to force me to leave. She simply doesn't have the power." **Bezanthume said and sat down next to them. His left hand was not bleeding anymore, but he was still sure not to use it and kept it close to his body. Bezanthume reached out his right hand and drew a similar sort of symbol in the air and clenched his fist. Branches and twigs from the surrounding area flew up in the air and landed in a pile under his reached out hand. He snapped his fingers and they were caught on fire.

**Orihime**

"You sure they won't come and try sneaking a peek?" Sango asked and tried to keep Orihime and Kagome between her and Lilith. It was understandable that she was hesitant of taking her clothes off in front of Lilith and Orihime could sympathize with her, and by the looks of things, so could Kagome. Both Kagome and Sango were hiding behind Orihime.

"What? They would do that? Well, there's no fear of that with Benny around. He won't let the two of them do something like that, he has standards." Lilith said as she was taking off her white dress. It was the same dress she had been wearing the other day when she met Chizuru. Somehow the fact that she didn't have any underwear did not surprise any of them. She just seemed like that kind of girl. And now that Orihime thought about it, where could she get any clothes anyways? It was not like she had any money and it was not like an angel could just steal. Lilith stepped down in the water and sighed out of relief. She let out her wings and leaned on the edge of the pool.

"Who wants to help me wash my wings? Come on, don't be shy! We're all girls here. Get in, the water's just perfect." Lilith said and sunk down into the water, so that only her wings were up in the air. Lilith stayed underwater and Orihime was the first one to undress and join her in the steaming hot water. Hot springs were nice and it was not like clothing would stop Lilith from seeing you naked if she wanted to. Sango and Kagome were a little hesitant in joining her, but they both eventually sunk down into the water. Lilith stayed underwater and started swimming around the hot spring with her wings looking and functioning like a pair of sails. The blue lines of her wings were active and she was using them to swim around without moving her arms and legs too much. The time she was able to hold her breath was impressive. When there was little chance of Lilith molesting them both Sango and Kagome turned to Orihime and asked her a question that had at least been burning inside Kagome's mind for a while.

"Is Bezanthume your boyfriend?" Kagome asked and stared at Orihime intently. Orihime turned her eyes to Kagome slowly and then gulped just as slowly. Sango leaned on the edge of the pool of hot water and watched both Kagome and Orihime with interest.

"What?" Orihime said in a weak voice. That question had knocked the wind out of her lungs. Where had that came from? How could Kagome even think of something like that? Bezanthume was a demon, for god's sakes! Orihime reminded herself of who exactly she was talking to; a girl that was in love with Inuyasha, a half-demon. It was not that impossible for her to think that a romantic relationship between a demon and a human was possible.

"Well, he took those wounds out of his own free will to avoid hurting you or us in any way. He held on to Miroku's staff even when it was eating into his flesh to turn you back, so he has to care for you, right?" Kagome said and watched Orihime's face intently. She was really interested in this, it seemed. Orihime was shocked to hear what Kagome was describing. Bezanthume had actually done that? The only thing Orihime remembered was using the power surging through his right hand to hurt Bezanthume, but how he brought her back was a blur.

"No, no, no! It's not like that at all! He has a contract with me and he's very serious about fulfilling it. He told you, right? He has to obey my wishes or he breaks some rule or something. It's not like he has feelings for me or anything even resembling something like that. I'm not sure if he even has feelings to begin with…" Orihime said and her words faded out and she sunk deeper into the water. Both Sango and Kagome knew that the demons in their world did have emotions, but these people were not from that world. Lilith finally resurfaced right in front of them and took one deep breath. She must have been submerged for at least five minutes and she wasn't even short of breath.

"Well, at least my lungs are okay now… And demons do have emotions just as much as angels do, but they just have to keep them contained to control their power. You seen how Benny can get if he gets angry, it's hard for demons to control their emotions, so they don't try to suppress it after they cross a certain point, they only direct and control it. Love isn't impossibility to them either, so don't count that out just yet. He acts strangely… soft around you." Lilith said this in a serious tone and then suddenly jumped on Sango by using her wings. Kagome quickly swam to another side of the pool, since she didn't want to get dragged in. She was fully aware that the only reason Lilith hadn't molested her yet was because Bezanthume had given her a look. Orihime swam over to her and then started pestering her about her relationship with Inuyasha in turn.

**Bezanthume**

"I think I heard a scream just now…" Miroku said and was looking up the hill where the girls were taking a bath with a look of longing in his eyes. Bezanthume waved his hand again and another branch was ripped out of a tree to feed the fire he had built. Miroku gulped and sat back down.

"**You don't have to worry about it. That was just Lilith molesting Sango, they'll both be fine." **Bezanthume said and reached his left hand back into the fire. His wounds healed faster the higher the temperature was. Inuyasha watched this with some interest present in his mind. Bezanthume knew what the dog boy thought about him and how he smelled. He also knew about how he was now thinking that he was a demon that controlled flames. It was not like he was wrong or anything, but it was naive of him to think that was all he could do.

"So, what's your relationship with that girl with the… plentiful assets?" Miroku asked in a serious voice. Bezanthume turned his head slowly to him and stared at him with his red eyes for a second. He didn't turn his eyes away, very well then, if it meant that much for him to know.

"**I am bound to her by a contract and I am to heed her command as long as that contract is in effect. Any foul act I may commit to her or anyone close to her might result in her nullifying the contract, so I heed her wishes just to be sure. That is all that is to our relationship." **Bezanthume waved his hand again and a large branch was ripped out of a tree behind the monk.** "Are you happy now, Monk?"**

Miroku gulped once again as the branch brushed past his face, barely missing him. He was wondering if he had aggravated Bezanthume and if he should run now. Bezanthume smirked and turned back to the fire. His wound had healed for the most part and he could use it in just a minute. He decided to ignore the suspicious glare Inuyasha was giving him and get on watching the flames be absorbed into the wound on his left hand.

**Kagome**

This Orihime girl knew way too much about them for it to be natural. When Kagome asked her about it she said that she had read about them and their adventures in her own world. Kagome had a hard time believing that there was a manga that described her life in such fine detail. The thought in itself was creepy to begin with. Lilith kept on making out with Sango under the cover of her wings wrapped around them. Kagome had to admit that it looked like they were both enjoying their selves and was getting a little flustered just from looking at the two of them.

Lilith suddenly detached herself from Sango and tilted her head as if she was listening to something. She sighed and spread her wings out to stop covering her and Sango making out. She planted her lips on Sango's one last time and Sango fell limp in her arms. Lilith took her lips off of Sango's and something that looked like luminescent light flowed into her mouth. She got up from the water and set Sango on the edge of the hot spring. Sango seemed to have lost consciousness and Lilith set her there to stop her from drowning in the water.

"I'd suggest that you would get a little further away from that girl, Princess. We're leaving, come here and put on your clothes." Lilith said and started by retracting her wings back into her back and picking up the white summer dress she had been wearing. Kagome was about to ask what she was talking about when something with the equivalent force of a meteor crashing to earth landed in the water in front of them. She was unable to see or hear anything for a second as the water rushed over her, but she suddenly found herself dangled up in the air by a pair of powerful arms and that she was pressed against rough black fabric.

She saw a glimpse of two eyes shining in bright red before her head was tilted to the side and she felt a piercing pain on the side of her neck. She tried to scream, but she was unable to get a word out from her throat because of the pain in her neck. She stared into the red lines of light in a huge wing he saw right in front of her eyes and felt how warmth escaped her body slowly as Bezanthume drank her blood in slow steady gulps. Just as Kagome thought that she was about to lose consciousness Bezanthume took his fangs out of her neck and Kagome saw how he licked the wound with his forged tongue to get the last drops of blood. Her whole body ached and she felt cold all over her body. Bezanthume lowered her back into the water gently in a spot where she could sit in the water without drowning herself and walked out himself.

"**We're leaving, Inoue Orihime. Get your clothes; I'm not going to wait for you to ask the obvious questions. There's time for that later." **Bezanthume's inhuman voice rumbled as Kagome's vision got blurrier and the world got darker by the minute.

"You're dead, you bastard!" Kagome heard Inuyasha's voice shout out and forced her eyes to open. She saw how Bezanthume simply waved his wing to repel both Inuyasha and Miroku back into the woods. Lilith seemed to be helping Orihime but on her clothes as she looked too stunned to say or do anything. Lilith didn't seem that unhappy about this, she was actually smiling widely as she dressed Inoue Orihime.

Bezanthume flapped both of his wings in a wide arc and the trees and everything in the direction he was facing was blown away from the force that shot out from his wings, including Inuyasha and Miroku. He didn't wait for them continue their attack and started shouting out words in a language that sounded foreign and some words were impossible for humans to even make. He was drawing runes in the air and they flashed in the air for a blink of an eye when he finished them and then flew over to form a circle around him, Lilith and Orihime. He shouted one last word in his own language and finished one final symbol and a bright red light engulfed the tree of them and reality itself seemed to twist and deform.

When the light faded away there was only a slight indention in the place they were standing just a second ago.

* * *

**Yeah, Kagome got bit. Please don't kill me. She was the only innocnet character I could think of that had enough blood in her to feed Bezanthume's power. And I am aware that I mostly ignored Kilala, didn't remember what Sango screams when throwing her boomerang and left Shunpou out completely. Review.**


	12. Omake Chapter Two, part 2

**Yes, another crossover Omake. This is part two and I'll be going back to the main story in the next chapter, but if you'd like for Bezanthume and Co. to visit some other Anime/manga fandom, do let me know.** **Have fun and review!**

* * *

**Omake Chapter Two, part 2**

**Of youkai and akuma**

"**Stay close; this is one's a lot more unstable than the last one." **Bezanthume said and started walking inside the hollow darkness they were in once again. Orihime followed him as he was the only source of light and being left alone in the dark didn't appeal to her. The darkness was just as absolute as it had been when she and Lilith had stumbled into it earlier, but somehow it also seemed like that it was moving around them instead of being a still void. Was this what he meant by it being unstable?

"**Yes. The sense of movement is because the void is urging to spit us out. This voids natural state is total and utter emptiness, so it doesn't appreciate us being here." **Bezanthume said with his attention fixed on something ahead of him in the darkness and kept on walking. He looked as if he had not done anything wrong. He just bit Kagome and just left her there to bleed out without a second thought. He was nothing more than a monster and Orihime didn't know why she had ever thought otherwise.

Orihime jumped a little when she noticed that Bezanthume had stopped walking and was looking straight at her. Damn, she had forgotten he could hear her thoughts. Bezanthume turned his back to her without saying a word and she sighed out of relief. Lilith grabbed her arm and started walking along with her. She stayed as close to the light Bezanthume was emitting and was sure to keep her eyes on his wings.

"Try not to zone out anymore, okay? I want to get out of here as soon as I can." Lilith said in a voice that didn't sound as unnaturally beautiful as her normal voice, she sounded like a normal human actually. Orihime glanced at her and noticed that she had sweat glistening on her temples. Was Lilith afraid of the dark by any chance? She had been acting strangely the first time they had been here as well now that Orihime thought about it. Well, according to what she knew about angels they were servants of god and lived in heaven. Heaven had to be a well lighted and happy place, so a fear of the dark could be pretty common.

"Well, actually it isn't that common…" Lilith said and turned her eyes to Orihime. What? Could Lilith hear her thoughts as well? For god sakes, isn't there a thing called privacy anymore? "No, no, no! You got the wrong idea! Yes, I'm a psychic, like Bezanthume, but I don't have a connection with you, so I would have to concentrate on listening to your thoughts, or be touching you like this to hear them." Lilith squeezed Orihime's hand to show her how she was able to hear her thoughts. Orihime somewhat understood that, but what was that about a "connection"? Lilith opened her mouth, glanced over to Bezanthume and when he showed no signs of acknowledging them she continued.

"You and Bezanthume have a connection. It is a kind of side-effect to the contract you made with him; you could compare it to a… signature of sorts." Lilith tried to explain and furrowed her brow as she tried to find a better metaphor. Orihime was now officially interested and glanced over at Bezanthume in turn. Somehow it seemed like this was something that he would not like her to hear. He seemed to be keeping Orihime in the dark about a lot of things.

"How does this connection work?" Orihime asked Lilith in a hushed voice and leaned closer to her. Lilith seemed to be nervous and on edge and she knew that Bezanthume did not want her to know things about the contract, but was too nervous not to talk.

"The contract you have with Bezanthume is called a blood scripture and as the name implies it is signed with blood, yours and his. I am not intimately familiar with the mechanics of actually forging the contract, but I do know that demons shy away from it whenever they can." Lilith explained in a strained voice and her grip on Orihime's hand tightened. The darkness was really getting to her. Even though Lilith acted selfishly and was abusive to peoples' privacy Orihime felt sorry for her. Still, she hasn't answered her question yet.

"Oh, sorry about that, the connection works simply through the seal of your contract; I can't be sure of this but I'd say it's that necklace of yours. It looks exactly like Bezanthume's –"

"**Shut up, Lilith." **Bezanthume ordered and kept on walking. His attention was still on some point in the darkness in front of him and he seemed not to pay them any attention. Lilith jumped and then gave Orihime a scolding glance. Lilith turned her eyes back to Bezanthume's wings and kept as close to him as possible. Orihime yanked her hand out of Lilith's and stepped away from her.

"I have a right to know about the contract! It was made between the two of us, so I should know! Bezanthume, tell me!" Orihime screamed and felt something tingling in her right hand, but ignored it. She pulled out the necklace that Bezanthume had seemingly given her as the seal of their contract and held it up in front of her face. The red and black mists inside were swirling violently and Orihime thought she heard a slight hum coming from it. Bezanthume stopped walking and turned towards her without averting his eyes from that something ahead of him.

"**Not now, Princess. Later." **Bezanthume rumbled and turned back towards where he was going. Orihime felt how her right hand was clenched into a fist and how the tingling sensation rushed up her arm. She felt something like an overwhelming rush of anger taking over her mind and how her body felt further and further away by the second. This felt exactly like that time with Inuyas –

"_Not later, Bezanthume. You will tell me RIGHT NOW!" _A voice that was not hers screamed using her mouth. Orihime saw how both Lilith and Bezanthume turned to her. Lilith looked ready to panic and Bezanthume had hunched over with his hands at his sides, he readied himself for something.

"Please, Orihime! Don't do this, not now!" Lilith begged with fear lacing her voice. She really looked like she was absolutely terrified about something. Bezanthume launched into action when Orihime had her attention on Lilith and Orihime saw his claws stopping right in front of her chest. She also noted that her right hand's palm was pointed towards Bezanthume. She felt a surge of power rush through her hand as she thrust it out towards Bezanthume. Some of the martial arts lessons Tatsuki had given must have stuck in her mind, since it looked like a type of karate punch.

Bezanthume was launched away from her and Orihime noticed that there was a ripple in the darkness behind Bezanthume. Bezanthume stopped his flight with one flap of his wings and then watched as the ripple spread out and small shimmers of light appeared in the surrounding darkness. They looked like cracks in the darkness.

"**Now you've done it, Princess…" **Bezanthume said and then slammed his hands together and started chanting words and drawing symbols in the air at an inhuman speed.

**Inside a certain gloomy tower on top of a mountain:**

**Kanda**

"Kanpaaai!" Everyone in the hall yelled in unison and jingled their glasses together. Almost everyone was smiling and catching up with each other. And just like in any other party, there were exceptions.

"I can't believe we were _all _called back for _this_. I don't even celebrate Christmas!" A good looking Chinese man with long black hair tied in a high pony tail and a black katana tied to his back grumbled to himself. A young boy with silvery hair and a red scar in the shape of a hexagon under his left eye walked up to him and offered him a glass. The white-haired boy kept on smiling and holding the glass as the man with the sword just stared at him with impassionate eyes.

"Cheer up, Kanda! It's Christmas, get in the spirit of the season! It's rare to have everyone gathered like this, so you should take the chance to catch up with everyone, right?" The boy with the white hair said and offered the glass once again. Even though Kanda would have liked to deny it, he had certain logic behind his words; If Kumoi really made the effort to get them all together for Christmas… What the hell is that?

Kanda noticed that the air up in the ceiling started to shimmer and felt a slight breeze moving upwards. He took the glass Allen was offering him and kept on watching the phenomenon above their heads. Was someone attacking them? Well, all the exorcists on the continent were gathered in one place, so it would be a golden opportunity. Should he warn everyone right now, or wait until he was sure it was a threat. Kanda glanced at the smiling face of Allen Walker and decided to wait until he was sure it wasn't one of Kumoi's attempts at entertainment.

The shimmering air darkened and the ceiling looked like it was covered in dark clouds. The slight breeze Kanda had felt a moment ago turned into a wind that caused his hair to move and the coats of the exorcists and finders gathered in the hall whip around. Lenalee was especially aware of the air rushing upwards because of her short skirt.

"What's going on? Nii-san, is this one of your stunts again?" Lenalee asked Kumoi while trying to keep her skirt in place. Kanda noted that Kumoi shook his head and then said something back to Lenalee, but the wailing of the air being sucked into the dark clouds above drowned out their voices. So, this was an attack then. Kanda drew his sword and placed his finger at the end of the hilt.

"Innocence, activate!" Kanda ordered and ran his finger along the blade to create the edge of his sword. He saw the other exorcists in the hall activate their Innocence as well. The dark clouds above their heads had intensified into impenetrable darkness and everything in the room was starting to be sucked in. What the hell was this, a vacuum? Kanda hunched down into a stance when there was a sudden flash of red light and he was blinded momentarily. He felt how a sudden shockwave knocked him back and how he was slammed against the far wall.

**Bezanthume**

"Ouch… Why do I keep falling from high places?" Orihime groaned and then lay limply where she fell. Both Bezanthume and Lilith had activated their concealing spells during the flash of light and were now surveying the surroundings. Unlike last time, they had appeared within an enclosed space and the effects were explosive, to say the least.

The void where they were thrown out created a rupture in space and time and started sucking reality in as it tried to dispose of what was within it already. When Bezanthume, Lilith and Orihime were all out the void, it repaired itself and launched everything that had been sucked in back in a fraction of a second. The results were… destructive to say the least in an enclosed space. To his great surprise most of the people either wearing long black coats with complicated silver decorations or simple off white coats stood up and were looking at the devastation around them. As Bezanthume could see, no one had died.

"I think we crashed their party, Benny-chan. And they were celebrating the birthday of Santa Claus to boot…" Lilith said with a sad undertone in her voice. Bezanthume could only stare at her and wonder if she was serious or not. Lilith showed no signs of it being a joke and Bezanthume ran his hand though his hair. She was an angel, for god's sakes…

Bezanthume had noticed that the people wearing black coats were wielding strange weapons and it was probably only a matter of time someone used some kind of trick to sense him. There was no actual point in staying invisible. He turned the spell masking his presence off and stood right at the centre of the devastation. They were bound to attack him so he charged his wings and prepared for attack. He made no offensive gesture or did he even move. He just watched as the people wearing black uniforms took stances, but did not attack right away.

"What, is he an akuma? He doesn't exactly look like one … Another member of the Noah clan then?" A guy with a huge ass hammer and an eye patch asked the people around him. There was a girl wearing a jacket with similar decorations and a very short skirt on his right side. She had her hair up in two pigtails on either side of her face and Bezanthume noticed that she was wearing armored high boots. Somehow she felt vaguely familiar… Her face did not seem that familiar; it was more because of her costume…

"Who are you?" The said girl asked in a confident tone. Bezanthume kept on staring at her and noticed how she started to feel uncomfortable after he did not say anything in the next couple of seconds. Her whole get up was somehow familiar to him, he just couldn't remember from where.

"**Have we met before by any chance?" **Bezanthume asked and did not avert his eyes from the girl's eyes, whose name seemed to be Lenalee. She glanced at her comrades and straightened from her stance unconsciously. A guy wielding a black katana stepped up and interrupted her before she got a chance to say anything.

"Give us one good reason not to kill you, bastard!" The man yelled. Bezanthume did not pay him any attention and only turned in his general direction when it was clear that Lenalee was not going to answer him.

"**It is considered impolite to interrupt someone's conversation, you know. It's just that the miss there seems somehow familiar and I'd like to know if we had met in the past. I have no intention of killing you if I am not provoked." **Bezanthume rumbled and then thought that he could have phrased that in some another way, but shrugged it off. Bezanthume ruffled his wings a little and turned his eyes back to the girl. She glanced at the guy with the sword again and opened her mouth to speak once again.

"No, I don't think we have met. I definitely would remember someone like you…" Bezanthume noticed that she blushed for some reason at this point "Then could you tell us why you attacked us like this in return?" Lenalee asked. Bezanthume raised a brow and looked at her friends standing around her.

The guy with the huge hammer had red hair and a band around his forehead and the way his hair was shooting up made him have a slight resemblance with a rabbit, somehow. The guy with the black katana had long black hair tied to a high pony tail and with bangs framing his face on either side. He had narrow eyes and a very intense and cold look in them. He was like what Bezanthume pictured a samurai to be. Bezanthume counted the people with black coats in the hall. There a woman with dark rings under her eyes and a disk with luminescent rings drawn on it on her shoulder, she posed no threat as the amount of nervousness from her mind was enough to immobilize her. There a guy with long red hair and a weird white mask over his right eye, even though he had a big revolver tied to his leg he seemed not to be an immediate threat as he was just sipping on a glass of fine red wine while sitting on the only intact chair in the hall.

"**Attacked you? No, this is only a side-effect of inter-dimensional travel. There would have been no problem if we would have materialized outside. I can fix it if you'd like, if that's the issue here. Just say the word, miss." **Bezanthume said and bowed towards this Lenalee. He had to stop them from attacking him and this girl seemed to be the easiest to manipulate out of all of them. It was hard to contain a smirk when he saw that Lenalee blushed and shuffled uncomfortably.

"Can't… Breathe…" A muffled voice came from under Inoue Orihime. Bezanthume's wings flinched from surprise and his head snapped towards were Inoue Orihime was lying unconscious. He wasn't sure if she had been knocked out by the impact or the manifestation of her aggressive personality, but had decided not to pay any attention to it. She was less of a hassle while she was knocked out anyway. Lilith started laughing and landed next to Inoue Orihime's body.

"Her breasts are amazing and all that, but for them to be deadly weapons… This is priceless!" Lilith said and then started howling with laughter after crouching down to see what was under Inoue Orihime's body. Bezanthume rushed over to Inoue Orihime's unconscious body and raised her off the floor before the people in front of him could even react. He saw a boy with white hair and a scar going over his left eye with a hexagon under his eye. Bezanthume set Inoue Orihime down on the ground and raised the boy off the ground from the collar of his uniform. He had a similar black coat with complex silver decorations as the others in front of Bezanthume, so he was probably a friend of theirs.

"**Is this yours?" **Bezanthume asked in a whole lot more of a threatening tone than the one he had used just a second ago with Lenalee. He turned his eyes towards the group of people wearing similar uniforms and offered the limp figure to them. The boy opened his eyes and looked up at Bezanthume's face. He was still somewhat dizzy from the lack of oxygen and it took him a while to assess the situation. The frightened look on his face told Bezanthume everything he wanted to know about how he saw the situation he was in.

"Are you a Noah?" The boy asked Bezanthume and he only stared at him for a second. He was holding his left hand by his side in a manner that hinted towards there being some sort of hidden blade in the sleeve of his jacket. The boy obviously thought he was dangerous, but by the fact he hadn't drawn his weapon even though he was dangled up in the air by the probable enemy he wasn't the aggressive type, naïve in other words.

"**I don't know what this "Noah" is, but I'm pretty sure that I am not one of them. Don't worry; I do not intend to hurt any of you." **Bezanthume said and lowered this white haired boy to the ground. Bezanthume looked into his mind and saw that his name was Allen Walker and he was part of a group called exorcists. Bezanthume turned his attention to the ruined hall and checked the damage and counted the intact furniture. He had promised to fix what he had broken.

"**Alright, I'll be cleaning up the mess I made, miss." **Bezanthume said and smirked at Lenalee. He raised his hands up with his palms facing upwards and muttered a string of words. Everything lying on the ground was now floating above their heads. Bezanthume chanted another string of words and then snapped his fingers. The air shimmered and the world around him was distorted and the pieces of broken furniture and ruined foods disappeared. Bezanthume waited for three seconds before snapping his fingers again. The world twisted out of shape again and Bezanthume rose above the floor with Inoue Orihime slung over his forearm.

"What are you?" Allen Walker asked and watched the hall in awe. Everything was exactly as it had been before the explosion. Bezanthume landed on a clear area and retracted his wings. He set Inoue Orihime on a chair and spread his arms out to his sides in a friendly manner. His claws might have made that gesture a little more aggressive than intended.

"**I am a demon, nice to meet you." **Bezanthume said and bowed towards them with his right hand above his heart and his left stretched out to the side. He watched as Lilith fluttered around the girl called Lenalee and the guy with the huge hammer. He muttered a string of words that cancelled out the spell that kept Lilith invisible and watched as Lenalee flinched back when she suddenly appeared an inch away from her face, smiling adoringly.

"**And, as you can probably see, she is an angel." **Bezanthume said and took great pleasure in seeing Lilith's shock when the samurai guy launched at her with murder in his eyes. Lilith jumped away from Lenalee before the guy with the black katana could cut off her head. Bezanthume had been aware of his foul mood and stayed away, but Lilith had taken no such precautions.

"Benny, that was mea –" Lilith was undoubtedly going to state the obvious, but the guy with the hammer interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.

"STRIIII-KE!" He screamed with numerous loud thoughts flying out of his head. Lilith shivered from head to toe and turned to the boy in surprise. The emotions flowing off of him must have been pretty powerful for them to affect Lilith in such a way. And judging by the lovesick look on his face Bezanthume had an idea as to what kind of thoughts they were. He would rather not get the details, so he turned his eyes away. He ended up looking into the mind of the boy with white hair. It was enlightening, so the hidden weapon was his left arm as a whole. These people were full of surprises…

"Well, you are pretty cute…" Lilith said and then flew over to the guy with the hammer and caused him to drop the hammer by wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a passionate kiss. The samurai guy hesitated on attacking her in this situation and after glancing at Allen Walker decided against it and sheathed his sword. He walked to a wall and started leaning on it. The other exorcists followed his example and sheathed whatever kind of weapon they were using. They really were full of surprises…

Well, there was no point in getting caught in the details, so Bezanthume walked to the opposite wall and leaned on it. He closed his eyes to take a closer look into the minds of these people. He had to determine if they would pose any kind of threat. Okay, let's see… The girl is Lenalee Lee, weird name… The guy with the hammer is Lavi, at the moment his thoughts were incoherent and disturbed Bezanthume's scanning. He wouldn't pose a threat as long as Lilith was on him. Allen Walker was too naive and didn't think of Bezanthume or Lilith as enemies. It seemed like he could identify most enemies with his left eye, something called akuma that could pretend to be human. That was probably the reason why the samurai guy, Kanda, glanced at him before deciding against attacking Lilith. An interesting bunch indeed… Wonder what they would do if Kanda got the sudden urge to behead someone called Kumoi? He had picked up a couple of thoughts about him and noticed that no one liked him, other than Lenalee, but she was his sister, so her opinions were untrustworthy.

Bezanthume was surprised when his legs suddenly gave out under him and he hunched down on the wall. He grabbed the wall with his hands to spare him from the inconvenience of getting up from the floor. What was this about now? He forced himself back to a standing position on the wall, but his claws were digging into the wall for support. Why was his body so weak? Wait, now that he thought about it, he hadn't given this body the rest it needed last night. And he had pushed this human body way past its limits several times and then just allowed his regenerative ability take care of it, when he should have given it some time to balance out its internal chemistry, in other words: sleep.

Well, it didn't seem like these people would be an immediate threat. Bezanthume pushed himself off the wall and forced his body to walk to a door that looked like it led outside. He was not going to fall asleep in a place full of people; it was just simply against his nature.

**Lenalee**

Lenalee watched as the giant man that had said he was a demon walked across the hall. He walked in a straight line; everyone was sane enough to get out of the way. Why would he go outside? Was he the unsocial type that hated crowds, like Kanda? He had hunched down on the wall just now and then had a pained look on his face, so maybe he just didn't want to look vulnerable in front of people, like Allen. What was this guy to begin with? He had just said that he was a demon and ensured that he was not there to hurt them and everyone was okay with that, but they didn't even know his name.

Lenalee suddenly had to dodge when Lavi and the angel lunged down from the ceiling and skimmed the crowd. That was another thing: The demon had said that this woman was an angel. Well, she looked the part, sure, but she acted like a… slut.

"You're crazy! You're going to kill us!" Lavi screamed when he came back to his senses for a second.

"Ads to the thrill, doesn't it?" The angel screamed back and let out a beautiful laughter before kissing Lavi again. Lavi seemed to forget the life and death situation he was in and fell limp in the angel's arms. Yes, it was official: Beautiful blondes are Lavi's ultimate weakness. Beautiful women in general were his overall weakness. Lenalee sighed and started walking towards the door the demon had gone through. She noticed what she was doing when she was just three steps away and had her hand reached out towards it.

Why should she even follow him? If he was going to kill us then he would have done it already, right? Was that the reason she was going to follow him in the first place? Was there any other reason? Sure, he was handsome and cool and seemed to be interested in her, but…

What the hell am I thinking?! No, I am not interested in him! He's eight feet tall for god's sakes! He's probably a Noah anyways, so there's no way that I could –

And there I go again! What is wrong with me? Lenalee stood there and nervously played with her hair. Yeah, that's right! He's probably a Noah, so I should keep an eye on him, just so that he doesn't try to kill us. Yes, that's definitely all. Lenalee took the last three steps and opened the door. She stepped on the balcony and closed the door behind her. She was standing on one of the many balconies on the tower their base was located in. She glanced left and right and didn't see the demon anywhere. Did he go to try and blow this place up or something? He didn't look like he was in good shape when he stepped through this very door, so where could he have gone?

Lenalee felt like smacking herself when she remembered he had wings. It was not like those wings were easy to forget; they were absolutely huge, but still looked graceful like a real bird's wings. In some ways he was what she would except from a demon, but those wings were too… as much as Lenalee would like to know another word to describe it, they were just too beautiful to fit into her picture of demons.

Lenalee shook herself out of her thoughts and ran over to the edge of the balcony and leaned over the rail. There were woods below the tower where she was facing and if he had glided down from here with those wings, then he would be right in the thick of woods and it would be hard for her to find him. Lenalee kept on scanning the trees intently. She remembered how those wings had been shining a bright red light, so she should be able to catch a glimpse if he had them out. She didn't bother on wondering how he had been able to retract them into his back. She and her friends were able to do some amazing things themselves.

"There!" Lenalee shouted out, sounding more excited than she would have liked, when she noticed a glimmer of red light amongst the trees almost directly below the railing she was leaning over. Had he just jumped down without using his wings? He sure did look tough enough to survive that. Lenalee jumped over the railing and prayed to god that he wasn't looking up. Lenalee still hadn't deactivated her Innocence and the fall would be nothing for her, even though a normal human would only end up as a smear on the ground.

Lenalee landed and deepened the crater that was probably caused by the demon jumping down just like she did just now. Lenalee had to climb out to be able to look around and search for the demon's body lying somewhere on the ground. She saw the man that claimed to be a demon sitting against a tree with his eyes closed. Was he hurt from the fall? He had his wings out and they were spread out on either side of him and Lenalee could do nothing but stare at them for a minute. They would have been impressive if they were just huge black wings, but that red light made them look like something out of this world.

"Incredible…" Lenalee whispered and walked towards the winged man while staring at the wings in awe. She had to stop herself from touching the smooth looking feathers when she got close and turned her attention towards his face. He had been handsome back when he had been trying to stop her friends from attacking him, but now that the aggressive red glow of his eyes was hidden behind his eyelids… Now Lenalee knew where the saying "devilishly handsome" came from.

Lenalee stepped closer and took a closer look at his wings. The largest feathers were about as tall as she was and the smallest she could see were about the length of her forearm. The wings were absolutely huge, but the feathers looked so smooth and soft… She just had to touch them. Lenalee reached her right hand out and then stopped just before her fingers touched one of the glowing red feathers. They felt hot, hot enough to burn her skin. Lenalee glanced over to the man's face to see if he was really sleeping. His breathing was slow and even and his body looked like it was relaxed against the tree. He was sleeping alright. What would he do if he wakes up from me touching his feathers?

But they looked so soft… Lenalee moved her hand over a giant black feather and it didn't seem to be hot, so at least her hand wouldn't get burned. Lenalee glanced at his restful face one last time before swallowing hard and placing the tips of her fingers on the smooth feather. There was no reaction from the colossal man sleeping against the tree, so she placed her palm on the surface of the feather. It was not hot, but it was warm, above body temperature. Lenalee moved her hand up and down on the feather and felt the smoothness of its surface. It wasn't as soft as it looked, but it was just as smooth as she had imagined. Lenalee ran her finger along the edge of the feather she was touching and drew her hand back in surprise.

"Blood…" Lenalee muttered and watched the blood run down her index finger. Definitely not soft; they were hard as steel. He could just probably use one as a sword if he ever had the need for one… That's so cool. Now, what was she going to do with her bleeding finger? She hadn't brought any bandages or even a handkerchief and the bleeding didn't seem to be stopping. Well, I don't like the taste of blood, but there seems to be no other choice.

"**Who… Whose blood is that?" **Lenalee flinched back from surprise when the man's rumbling voice suddenly erupted out of his chest. She turned her eyes to him and noticed that he was just opening his eyes. The previously bright light of his eyes was dimmer and fluttered like a flame. His eyes slowly turned towards her and focused on her bleeding finger. What exactly was he planning to do to her?

Lenalee was watching his hands and body very carefully, so she didn't notice the wing she was just admiring stretch out behind her. She only felt it push her towards the man's lap when he pulled his wing back. He moved unnaturally fast for someone who was still half asleep when he grabbed her right hand and brought it up to his face. Lenalee landed in his lap and was surprised how warm he was.

"What do you think you… are… doing…" Suddenly it was very hard to get a word out. The current situation was just too bizarre for coherent thought. The colossal man had grabbed the wrist of the hand she had cut just a minute ago and was now licking the blood carefully with an unnaturally long tongue. She tried to pull her hand away, but even though he wasn't holding her especially tight his hold was unrelenting.

Lenalee watched in awe as the man wrapped his tongue around her finger to get the least bit of blood. She could feel blood rushing up to her cheeks. Somehow, in some disturbing way, the sight was not repulsive; actually it was kind of… Yet again Lenalee hoped that she knew another word to describe the situation. Somehow the sight of the colossal man licking her finger clean of blood with his unnaturally long tongue was… kind of kinky.

He's so warm… What the hell am I thinking? There's a guy that had confessed on being a demon sucking my blood and I'm thinking about… about… stuff! The man slipped her finger in his mouth and cleaned the tip of her finger of blood. He pulled her finger out of his mouth and looked if there would be any more. He licked his lips and finally let go of her hand. Lenalee was too stunned to do anything as he leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. A couple of seconds later he was breathing slowly and evenly with Lenalee on his lap. He just goes back to sleep after all that? Lenalee felt kind of _used_ right now… Why am I still on his lap?

Lenalee jumped up when this thought struck her and took a fair distance from him. She still didn't know his name and he just sexually assaulted her. Can you call that anything else? Well, he was half asleep and it was her that woke him up by playing with his wings. And what exactly did he do anyways? Lenalee held the finger she had cut on the edge of the feather on his humongous wing and then had to hold up her other hand to see if she had held up the wrong hand.

Yeah, what exactly had he done just now? There was no sign of the cut on her finger and his saliva had already dried up. Did he just heal her somehow, with his tongue? That was disturbing, but it also meant that he didn't just start licking her on a whim. That was a relief. He wasn't a complete freak…

And I still don't know his name! I should kick him awake and make him tell me. For that stunt he pulled just now he owes me that much… But do I really want to find out what he'll do if I wake him up in that way? He seemed like the type to react violently to something like that, just like Kanda. Lenalee turned his eyes to the man's face and saw him licking his lips again. She clenched her fists by her side and literally shook with anger. So, he actually liked how it tasted…

Fuck him and his reactions! I'm kicking him!

**Orihime**

"Wonder if she's a demon, or an angel for that matter? My money's on the angel if it ever comes down to it. If I could just get a little bit of her blood…" A male voice with a childish ring to it said. Where was she? The last thing Orihime remembered was an overwhelming sense of anger and Bezanthume charging at her.

"Get away from her, Kumoi." harsh sounding voice said somewhere behind her. Wait, what did he call that guy just now?

"Don't be such a party pooper, Kanda, she's asleep." The man called Kumoi said and Orihime heard the sound of a sword being drawn. No way… This can't be… Well, she did just meet Inuyasha, so seemingly nothing's impossible, not when Bezanthume is involved.

"So you're saying it's okay if she doesn't know about it?" The man called Kanda practically growled out. This just can't be happening… Is Kanda threatening Kumoi right next to her? Actually, were they arguing about her? Orihime wanted to open her eyes and see, but she was also afraid that she would be disappointed.

"Yes, I see nothing wrong with it." Kumoi said and Orihime could imagine him nodding his head. She could also imagine Kanda placing his sword on his neck and stopping him. Orihime opened her eyes and saw just what she had expected: Kumoi standing in front of her with Kanda standing next to him, holding his sword on his neck.

"I cannot believe that Lenalee was ever entrusted in your care…" Kanda said with a mean look in his eyes. He glanced at Orihime and noticed that she was looking at him with her jaw hanging open. He gave her a cold look and then walked away after sheathing his sword. He probably thought that he was not in any way obligated to protecting her if she was awake. Orihime turned to where Kumoi had been a second ago and noticed that he was nowhere to be seen.

Orihime stood up from the chair she had been set down on while she was unconscious. She was really in the world of D. Gray-Man! This was even more incredible than being face to face with Inuyasha, or scratching him behind the ear for that matter. Wonder where Allen Walker was?

"Oh, you're awake. I know that I broke your fall, but are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" A boyish voice asked from behind Orihime. Orihime turned around slowly and couldn't believe what she saw. Allen Walker was standing right behind her with a worried look on his face. Seriously, it was Allen Walker, the Allen Walker!

"Hey, are you okay? You're blushing…" Allen Walker asked her. He was actually concerned about her! I can't believe this! Wait, did he just say he broke my fall? Now that you mention it, I do remember falling on something white and hard… Was that his head? Oh my god, I fell on Allen Walker!

"I am so sorry for falling on you!" Orihime yelled while bowing towards Allen Walker. Allen took a step back and had a confused look on his face. He watched her dumbfoundedly for a minute before waving both of his hands in front of him and laughing nervously.

"No, you shouldn't be apologizing! I knocked you out with my hard head and all…" Allen said while smiling earnestly. He was just as much of a sweetheart as Orihime remembered him being. The complete opposite of a certain demon… Where was Bezanthume or Lilith for that matter?

"Where are Bezanthume and Lilith? It's not good to let those two run amok!" Orihime asked Allen while taking a quick step towards him. Allen leaned back from her sudden proximity looked around the ceiling for the angel.

"Well, we know that the angel is trouble, but the demon fixed the whole hall and then just left. He didn't seem like that bad of a guy…" Allen said and scratched the back of his head while Orihime stared at him with her jaw hanging open. How did Bezanthume do that? He was somehow able to make Kagome think he was her boyfriend and now Allen was saying he wasn't that bad of a guy. He ended up biting Kagome and leaving her to bleed out. Orihime did not want him doing the same thing here… My god! Where was Lenalee?

"Where is Lenalee? Tell me!" Orihime asked and took another step closer to Allen. She shook him without realizing what she was doing and Allen had no idea what was going on as his head was thrashing around. Orihime let go of Allen after she shaking him for a minute and he staggered around until leaning on a table for support. Orihime did not know her own strength.

"Lenalee… Now that you… mention it… ugh…" Allen leaned on the table with both hands. The world was spinning. "You're stronger than you look… I haven't seen her around for a while…" Allen said and let go of the table and faced Orihime with shaky legs. Orihime hadn't realized how hard she had been trashing him around. Allen was a little afraid of her.

"What?" Orihime exclaimed and caused Allen to flinch back in fright. "No, this can't be happening again! Where are Bezanthume and Lilith? Lenalee might be in trouble, depending on which one of them got to her first." Orihime asked Allen and he held his hands up to keep her back.

"The angel is somewhere doing god knows what with Lavi and the demon stepped out into the balcony about ten minutes ago. As for Lenalee's current whereabouts go, I think you should ask Kumoi." A harsh voice interrupted Orihime before she shook Allen again. Orihime turned around slowly and saw Kanda standing there, sipping on a glass of what looked like apple juice. He looked even cooler up close than Orihime had thought.

"Oh yeah, Kumoi… He probably has a tracking device implanted in Lenalee or something, right? Where is Kumoi by the way? Wasn't he here just now? He really does have a three second attention span…" Orihime said to Kanda and Allen. Both of them looked a little dumbfounded. Kanda turned his eyes away from her while sipping on his drink and Allen scratched his cheek with one finger and just smiled, unsure as to what to say.

Allen was just about to say he was going to go and find Kumoi, but that was when the door to the balcony was blown out of its hinges. An ominous red light flooded from the other side of the door and the wall surrounding the door was blown away in a flash of blinding red light. Orihime had hunch about how it was from the red light, but when Bezanthume stepped over the threshold she was almost unable to recognize him. Blood covered the left side of his face and his hair looked more like the mane of a wild animal. His eyes were not only red; they were pools of bright red light. The feathers on his wings were sticking out every which way and looked dangerously sharp. His claws had grown to be more like talons and he was growling while exposing his fangs. What had happened to him?

"Benny's gone berserk. Wonder if that girl has a part in it?" Lilith said and landed next to Orihimr with a very drained looking Lavi in tow. She dropped Lavi on the floor and fixed her hair with her hand. Orihime looked between Lilith and Lavi and Lilith gave her a questioning look.

"You sucked him dry…" Orihime said in shock. She knew that Lavi had a weak spot for beautiful women, but for him to let Lilith suck out his soul or whatever she did was… very stupid of him. Lilith only smiled at Orihime and then licked her lips dramatically.

"In more ways than one, Princess…" Lilith said and then giggled innocently. Both Allen and Kanda blushed furiously. Orihime watched them with innocence shining in her eyes and wondered what they were blushing about. What did Lilith say about "that girl"? Orihime had a bad feeling about this whole thing when she turned back towards Bezanthume and looked a little closer. Lenalee was lying limply on Bezanthume's right arm with her neck covered in blood and glowing red veins spreading on her cheeks. Bezanthume raised her up to his face and sunk his fangs in her neck more brutally than he had done with Kagome. What could have caused him to lose it like this?

Kanda ran towards Bezanthume while drawing his sword. He ran his finger along the blade and shouted out something. Orihime knew what he shouted out, but could not hear him clearly. The sight of Bezanthume biting through Lenalee's neck shocked her to the core. She watched as Kanda swung his sword down towards Bezanthume. Bezanthume simply moved his wing to block him and then smacked him away with the same wing. Bezanthume opened his jaws and dropped Lenalee on the floor like she was a piece of garbage. His head snapped towards Allen and he spread his wings on both sides while letting out a roar that shook the air and forced Orihime to her knees. She saw Allen stagger and clutch his head before Bezanthume crashed on top of him.

Bezanthume growled slowly and held Allen's arms down with his own, with his claws digging deep into the floor. He lowered his head until his nose almost touched Allen's skin and then breathed in through his nose. Allen tried to squirm out from under him, but the grip on both of his arms was unrelenting. Bezanthume ripped the front of Allen's uniform off with his fangs and then paused with his mouth over Allen's throat.

"Damn, that's hot…" Lilith whispered and bent down next to Orihime. She turned his face towards Orihime and smiled sweetly. "Time for you to sleep, Orihime- chan." She said and then planted her hand over his eyes before she could react. Orihime felt how her whole body suddenly became heavy as lead and it was impossible to keep her eyes open. Just before she fell asleep she heard Allen's voice gasping suddenly and the sound of Bezanthume's fangs piercing through the smooth skin of his neck.

"Sorry, Orihime- chan, but I would like to get home on the next try, so it's a whole lot easier to have you knocked out…" Lilith's voice faded away and soothing velvety darkness consumed her.

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**A rushed ending, but I would have liked to get this done already. Review and tell me what you think!**

**Crazy laughter  
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	13. School

**Okay, I finally got this done and I hope you like it. And before anyone asks: No, I'm not planning on pairing Bezanthume with Tatsuki.**

**Enjoy!  


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**Chapter Ten**

**School  
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Damn it all to hell… Well, that's what he would like to do now, but certain things were stopping him from even stopping his fall. He was thinking of ways to lessen the impact of the fall, so that his clothes wouldn't get ruined. He was not worried about the fall at all. He had survived worse and he wouldn't even get a scratch on him from something like this, but how would that play with his acting human in front of Inoue Orihime's classmates?

Oh, who the fuck cares! Bezanthume turned his body around in the air, so that he would land on his feet and thus would not ruin his uniform. He hit the ground and bent his knees a little. He reflexively nullified the strain to his body with a surge of energy and the ground under him cracked and seemed to be pushed downwards. He looked up and saw people crowding the windows of the classroom he just fell from. Arisawa Tatsuki was not one of them; she must be too shocked to move just yet. It did look like she had just killed him.

"Hey, Arisawa Tatsuki, you didn't have to take it so seriously! But it is admirable that you're prepared to follow through, though. I regret nothing!" Bezanthume yelled up to the window and saw how the people crowding the window where either suddenly pulled back or had the common sense to step aside. Arisawa Tatsuki leaned out of the window.

"Go fuck yourself, you perverted bastard!" Arisawa Tatsuki screamed and Bezanthume noted that every class had gathered at their windows to listen to their argument.

"But I'd much rather fucking you!" Bezanthume yelled and smirked widely. She walked right into that one. Bezanthume heard how most of the students listening to them burst out into laughter or at least chuckled a little and took great pleasure in seeing Arisawa Tatsuki's blush deepen. She opened her mouth to say something back a couple of times, but then just whipped around and let out an annoyed scream, then she seemingly walked back to her desk and sat down, since the window got crowded again. Bezanthume stood there and thought if he should just walk right back up when Ochi Misato elbowed her way to the window.

"Are you alright, Copperwail-kun?" She asked and Bezanthume thought of how he should answer to that. He was supposed to pass off as a human, but he had caught a couple of thoughts about this "Chad" and thought that it wouldn't be that surprising if he just told the truth. He was bigger than Chad, so they could also conclude that he was tougher.

"I'm just fine! I think I might have strained something, but it ain't anything too serious!" Bezanthume yelled back up. Ochi Misato checked him over and then looked at the cracked ground under his feet and the shards of glass around him.

"Well, at least go to the school nurse and let her check you over! Do you know where that is? Should I send someone to escort you? And before you ask; it's not going to be Arisawa or any other girl!" Ochi Misato yelled back at him. He just had to laugh at that remark. It seemed that he was able to get a reputation either as a womanizer or a pervert from his little stunt.

"I'll find it! And I think it would be better to let Arisawa Tatsuki cool off a little before I get within throwing distance!" Bezanthume shouted in a voice loud enough for Arisawa Tatsuki to hear him. Her reaction did not disappoint him.

"Shut up!" Arisawa Tatsuki's voice was heard from inside the classroom. Ochi Misato ordered everyone to take their seats and Bezanthume started walking towards where he thought the nurse's office was. He walked inside the school and then went through the memories he had from this school. It did not help that Inoue Orihime's memories concentrated on all the wrong little details and somehow just faded away to a whole different world at times. He finally found the nurse's office after going around the school two times. He wasn't feeling courteous enough to knock and just opened the door.

"Hello, I'm here to…" Bezanthume said but then his words faded away from surprise. Now, he wasn't sure how he could have missed this little detail. He was genuinely surprised now. Out of all the things he didn't expect to see…

"Oh, you're a student here, then? I've never seen you around. What did you come see me for?" Honshou Chiyo asked and gave him a sweet smile. Bezanthume noticed how her eyes tended to stray to his bare forearms and how she avoided eye contact after he caught her staring. Bezanthume closed the door behind him and made a quick hand sign to seal it shut. He returned Honshou Chiyo's smile and bowed slightly with his right hand over his heart. He had left a certain kind of impression with this woman and breaking it by acting like a typical teenager just didn't feel right.

"I am afraid that you are correct only in part; I am a student here, but I just transferred here today along with my cousin. I must apologize for my rude actions yesterday evening when you were kind enough to serve me _**tea." **_Bezanthume said with his last word laced with enough hatred for it to partly break the spell changing his voice. He looked at Honshou Chiyo to see if she had noticed. She did look surprised, but not shocked enough for her to actually feel his rage spilling out. That tea had really been a pain and had laid his plans to ruin and forced him to improvise.

But the fact that he could not kill or severely hurt this woman pained him and forced him to improvise even further. Even slightly hurting this woman would probably be out of the question since she was tied to an institution where Inoue Orihime was a student and a close relative of one of her friends. So, he couldn't do anything to hurt this woman at all… Bezanthume realized that he had stood there for a couple of seconds just staring at Honshou Chiyo while thinking about ways to make her pay. He cleared his throat and straightened his back from the bow.

"My name is Benjamin Copperwail and it is a pleasure to meet you again, Honshou Chiyo. I was sent here on the account of me falling from a window on the third floor and to be checked over for injuries." Bezanthume said and noted the surprised look on Honshou Chiyo's face. How was he going to make her pay without hurting her, or doing something that Inoue Orihime could find out about?

"Wait, are you saying that you fell from the third floor?" Honshou Chiyo asked and stood up from her chair. Bezanthume could understand that would sound weird, but he had to state a reason for being here.

"Yes… I happened to be kicked out of it by a certain person, because of a certain thing I did. Arisawa Tatsuki is one feisty girl… and takes some things way too seriously." Bezanthume said and enjoyed the surprised face of Honshou Chiyo. She was wearing a white doctor's coat, a sleeveless top with a V-cut and a black skirt. Bezanthume had to admit that the outfit did suit her. Honshou Chiyo raised a brow at the mention of Arisawa Tatsuki's name.

"If you don't mind me asking: What exactly did you do to get her to kick you out of a window?" Honshou Chiyo asked and started chewing on the end of the pencil she was holding in her right hand. It must been a bad habit of hers; it didn't look like she was aware of it. Was she that interested in what he had done? No, it didn't seem like her eyes had strayed up to his eyes just yet. Sometimes he hoped he was an emphatic psychic like Lilith, so that he could know what exactly was going in human minds, especially the female ones. When he heard a couple of Honshou Chiyo's thoughts he suddenly knew how she could pay for that tea without him hurting her.

"I kissed her and she freaked out for some reason." Bezanthume waved his hand dismissively as Honshou Chiyo started laughing. She kept on laughing for a while and Bezanthume wasn't sure if he should stop her. She leaned back on her chair and kept on laughing. What was so funny exactly? He really couldn't understand what was going on.

"What's so funny?" Bezanthume asked and sat down on the exanimation table. He smelled the air and tried to pick up the natural scent of this woman in front of him. He was grateful that Honshou Chiyo did not wear too much perfume. Honshou Chiyo slapped her hands over her mouth and forced herself to stop laughing.

"Oh, sorry about that… It just happens that I know about Arisawa's temper when it comes to these things. I've treated many injuries she has caused to the members of the karate club that got a little too grabby. I swear, I've never seen those boys so on edge as they were then. I'm surprised that she didn't rip your head off… Did she try?" Honshou Chiyo asked while looking him straight in the eye. Bezanthume smirked a little and massaged his neck with his right hand while turning his eyes away from the woman.

"I'm sure she was planning on trying… She still might actually. I'd better watch myself." This caused Honshou Chiyo to laugh again and Bezanthume used the chance to lean closer to her and sense the nature of her energy and the way it flowed in her body. Bezanthume was not talented in mental manipulation; there were very few demons that were, they simply had too much power for such delicate operations. So, in exchange demons excelled in a whole other kind of manipulation. Bezanthume wasn't sure if Lilith had a name for it, but demons never bothered on coming up with one, since it came naturally to every each one of them.

Demons were beings with immense power. Demons were raised in an environment that required perfect control of the power they wielded, but even the most disciplined of demons couldn't help having the power they contained within their bodies affecting the fragile balance of energies inside the human mind. The imbalance of energy could have varying effects in the behavior of humans, the overflow of energy inside the mind of a human caused changes in the personality of the affected human, powerful and primal instincts surfaced and clouded their judgment. Humans called these the seven deadly sins: Sloth, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Pride and of course Lust. Demons had noticed this and then learned how to use it as a tool when completing their contracts with humans, Bezanthume was no exception.

"You certainly are in a good mood…" Bezanthume said and watched as Honshou Chiyo wiped the tears out of the corners of her eyes and took a sip of her coffee. "Should I take my clothes off?"

Honshou Chiyo nearly choked on her coffee. She put the coffee cup back on the table and tried to cough the coffee out from her wind pipe. Bezanthume leaned closer and asked her if she was okay. She waved her hand and turned to him with water in her eyes from all the coughing.

"What did you just say?" She asked in a raspy voice and coughed one last time to clear her throat. Her face was too red for it to be just from the coughing. Her thoughts were straying off to inappropriate paths and Bezanthume could only smirk and reconfigure the amount of energy he was going to release. He didn't want to turn her into a crazed nymphomaniac, only so that she would forget about her objections.

"I came here to be checked over if I had any injuries I might be unaware of, so should I take my clothes off for that? What did you think I was talking about?" Bezanthume asked and leaned closer to her. She leaned back on her chair reflexively to get some distance between them and Bezanthume just couldn't help but smirk when seeing how flustered she was. Humans were so easily manipulated.

"Oh, well, you don't have to if you're uncomfortable and you would know if you had any fractures or sprains yourself, so there's no actual need for you to… take your clothes off… or anything..." Bezanthume widened his smirk into a smile that exposed his slightly overgrown fangs and reached his hand out to touch the side of Honshou Chiyo's neck. In order for him to affect her mind in a controlled way physical contact was required. He saw how she shivered at his touch and then he moved his hand behind her head. He pulled her up from her chair and closer to him, until their faces were almost touching.

"What are you – We can't… we… shouldn't…" Her eyes were starting to haze over and she was looking up to his eyes. She was blushing furiously and she was opening and closing her mouth when her rational mind tried to overpower the messages her body was sending it. She was fighting a lost battle. She had been attracted to him before, but with the energy control and the heat radiating off of Bezanthume's body taking effect she had absolutely no objections after Bezanthume kissed her on the lips and raised her off the ground. She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to support her.

This was going to be fun…

**Orihime**

I can't believe he did that. What reason could he have to kiss Tatsuki-chan? And if he did have a reason, then why did he do it in the middle of class? Or more importantly, why did Tatsuki-chan react the way she did? Sure, Bezanthume was tall, dark and handsome, but getting into a guy she never met kissing him in the middle of class just was not like Tatsuki-chan, no way. She heard Tatsuki-chan _moan _for god's sakes! Bezanthume must have used some sort of mind control on her; that was the only way.

"You're better off if you don't think about it, Orihime-chan. He does these things." Lilith whispered from behind her. Orihime glanced at her and judging from the way Lilith flinched back in surprise her anger must have shone through her features. Why did Bezanthume feel the need to interfere with her life? Did he get some kind of sadistic pleasure from seeing her squirm? Well, he was a demon…

"Do you have any idea what's keeping him? It's been half an hour already…" Orihime asked and turned to Lilith. Lilith shrugged and turned another page on her notebook. It didn't seem like she was taking notes though; it looked more like she was drawing something… with tentacles. Her hand was moving around the paper like a humming bird on a sugar rush, but she hadn't even touched her eraser. Well, it did make sense that an angel would be talented in art. Lilith drew another tentacle and then stopped raised her pen off the paper and focused on Orihime.

"I honestly don't know. He might just be shooting the breeze somewhere. He looked kind of bored before he decided to spruce things up by kissing your friend there…" Lilith stopped and then looked at Tatsuki with a smile on her lips. She leaned closer to Orihime and motioned for her to do the same. "Speaking of your friend there… She seems to be quite taken by Benny-chan's charm. I don't know about his motivations, but your friend allowed the kiss to continue because she enjoyed it." Lilith told Orihime in a hushed voice. She leaned back with a wide smile and then turned her attention back into her drawing. Orihime turned back to taking notes with what Lilith had just said ringing in her head.

Did Tatsuki-chan really have a crush on Bezanthume? That didn't sound possible, but… Why didn't she fight back the minute he invaded her private space? Orihime remembered how she had answered to her question last night and Lilith's claim made more sense the more she thought about it.

"_A man is supposed to be the one to protect you…"_ Bezanthume was inhumanly powerful, so he met Tatsuki's standards, but there was the fact that he was a homicidal demon. Should Orihime tell her friend who Benjamin Copperwail really was, warn her? No, it's not like she'll ever believe her if Bezanthume doesn't show her himself. Was there any way he would do that? He came here under an alias and had hidden his demonic features somehow, so it's not like he's going to blow his cower willingly. Why did he enroll here in the first place? Did he get bored or something? Was it somehow part of the contract? Gah! Why am _I _even thinking about this? This is exactly what he wants; to mess with my head. What other reason could he have to enroll at my school and then kiss Tatsuki-chan ten minutes after introducing himself?

"Well, you sure seem to be more into academics than your –" Ochi Misato's voice faded away and she stopped behind Orihime's back. Orihime turned around to see what was she talking about and saw her staring at Lilith's drawing with her mouth hanging open. Lilith stopped her pen and looked up to the teacher. She glanced between her notebook and Ochi Misato and then offered the notebook to her. The teacher took it in her left hand and flipped the pages back with her right. Just how many drawings had Lilith been able to finish in a half a hour?

"This is… These are… You are… quite talented." She simply said as her blush deepened the longer she looked at whatever Lilith had drawn in her notebook. Lilith smiled happily and stood up next to the teacher. She leaned over the teacher's shoulder and then started explaining her drawings.

"Yeah, I had to take some artistic liberty here and guessed your size, but I think I got them about right. Oh, and there I execrated your lines on purpose. I was inspired by the redhead sitting in front of me, by the way. That is an octopus, that is a foot stool and the thing in your hand is a cucumber. What do you think, Misato-sensei?" Lilith asked in a completely normal voice from the beet red Ochi Misato. Again, complete and utter silence fell upon the class when all of them processed what Lilith had just said. Every single one of them wanted to know what she had drawn in her notebook. Ochi Misato opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again after forcing her eyes off the drawings in Lilith's notebook.

"You… You made all this in thirty minutes?" Misato-sensei asked and flipped back the pages Lilith had drawn. Orihime counted five pages before Misato-sensei closed the notebook. No one was doing the work they had been assigned to do, everyone was trying to picture what exactly Lilith had drawn in her notebook to make Misato-sensei blush so furiously.

"Yes, I got kinda bored after Benny was kicked out… What, don't you believe me? I can show you if you want." Lilith said and her smile was replaced by a determined expression. She started walking towards the board before Misato-Sensei could say a word. She stopped and wiped the board clean. She then took a piece of chalk in her right hand and seemed to be measuring the board. She suddenly whipped around to face the class and tapped her bottom lip with the piece of chalk.

"What should I draw… What should I draw…" Lilith's eyes scanned the whole class before finally stopping at Tatsuki-chan. A mischievous smile spread on Lilith's face and she turned back to the board. "Okay, I got it now. This is only going to take a minute, Misato-sensei." Lilith started drawing lines on the board without waiting for her to answer. Misato-sensei held her finger up for a couple of seconds before crossing her arms while shrugging slightly and holding onto Lilith's notebook. She probably didn't want anyone else seeing what Lilith had drawn.

Lilith's hand moved just as quickly as Orihime had seen it move when she was drawing whatever she had drawn in her notebook and just like with her smaller drawings, she didn't make any mistakes while drawing. She stepped side to side and reached around the board. She flipped her hair out of her face a couple of times and Orihime couldn't help but stare at her golden hair flowing back down her back. She had absolutely beautiful hair. She drew in a way that made it impossible to actually know what she was drawing before it was almost ready. Orihime turned her away from Lilith's impressive display of artistic talent and hand-eye coordination and checked how long it had taken for Lilith to draw it. It couldn't have been more than two minutes from the time she walked up to the board to the time she was filling in the details that gave the collection lines and shadowed areas a definite shape. Lilith stepped back from the board and then nodded her head and stepped aside to let everyone see what she had drawn.

Lilith had somehow been able to draw a black and white image of Bezanthume and Tatsuki-chan using only the chalk. There was a drawing of lifelike detail portraying Bezanthume waist up pinning Tatsuki-chan on a vertical surface. Tatsuki had her legs around Bezanthume's lower back and Bezanthume was supporting her with his left hand under her right thigh and his right going under her left arm and grabbing her by the hair. Tatsuki's hands were grasping Bezanthume's shoulders tightly. Lilith had drawn it so that Bezanthume's broad back covered Tatsuki's torso, but the perceptive was slightly on the side of Bezanthume's left shoulder and Tatsuki's bare chest was pressed against Bezanthume's. Neither of them had anything covering their bodies and the only thing keeping the picture from being pornographic was the fact that Bezanthume's body was covering Tatsuki's, but it was painfully clear as to what they were doing. Bezanthume was holding Tatsuki's head a mere inch away from his own and there was a wide smirk on his face. Tatsuki's eyes were half closed and she was looking up to Bezanthume's eyes. The look on her face was a mixture of pain and bliss and her mouth was slightly agape like she was moaning.

"Wow…" Everyone except Tatsuki gasped in unison. Tatsuki had her jaw hanging wide open and was still too shocked to do anything. Lilith looked very pleased with herself and bowed to her audience. Someone started clapping and soon Orihime noticed that she was clapping along with everyone. She glanced at the rest of the class and noticed that several people had their phones out and were taking pictures of the piece of art Lilith had created.

"Arisawa, stop! I didn't – GAAAH!" Asano Keigo flew through the air and was slammed against the blackboard face first and wiped the drawing of Tatsuki and Bezanthume when he slid down to the floor. He stayed there, groaning in pain and twitching every few seconds. Tatsuki stormed to the front of the class and slammed her fist on the blackboard to further express her opinion on the piece of art.

"Why in god's name do you Copperwails keep pestering me?" Tatsuki asked in a voice shaking from anger. She pulled her fist back from the board and a crack shot out across it, from the bottom left corner to the upper right corner. Lilith glanced at it in surprise and then gave a radiant smile to the furious girl in front of her.

"You're so cute when you get angry… I can see Benny's motivation for – Whoah!" Lilith quickly stepped back to avoid Tatsuki's fist colliding with her face. Orihime knew that Tatsuki was in the karate club and even the seniors thought twice about messing with her, but just now it seemed like she just materialized in front of Lilith without moving the distance between them.

"Come on, it's all in good sport! And don't even try to say you didn't enjoy it when Benny – " Lilith had to stop her sentence mid-way because she was dodging Tatsuki's kick aimed at her gut. Lilith jumped back laughing and continued to dodge and deflect Tatsuki's attacks. Lilith was smiling and laughing while Tatsuki had a look of intense determination on her face. Lilith stopped at the doorway and held her hands out to stop Tatsuki. Tatsuki stopped her attack and lowered her arms to her sides. She seemed to have calmed down enough to see what she was doing.

"Benny and Tatsuki sitting in a tree…" Lilith sung out and then rushed out the door with Tatsuki close on her heels. "We'll be back as soon as possible, Misato-sensei!" Lilith's laughing voice echoed out from the hall and the sound of their footsteps faded away.

Everyone turned their attention to Misato-sensei in search of what exactly where they supposed to do. They saw her pinching the bridge of her nose with her glasses pushed up on her forehead like she had a headache. She was still holding on to Lilith's notebook. She sighed and walked up to her desk. She opened one of the locked drawers, threw the notebook in it, closed it, took the key and put it in her pocket.

"Now, where were we?" She asked the class like nothing had happened, totally ignoring Keigo groaning in pain and twitching next to her. The students just stared at her and then pointed towards Keigo. She looked to her right and made a "Oh!" sound.

"Sorry I'm late… What the hell happened here?" Kurosaki asked and stopped in the doorway. He saw Keigo lying on the floor below the blackboard with a smudged drawing above him. It was not surprised if he was surprised.

"Oh, this is convenient. Kurosaki-kun, go and drop of Asano-kun at the school nurse. Arisawa might have hurt him." Misato-sensei ordered and pointed at Keigo twitching on the floor. Ichigo stared at Keigo and the whole scene in front of him in awe.

"Did Tatsuki do this or…?" Ichigo asked in a dumbfounded voice. Misato-sensei sighed and rubbed her temples like she had a headache.

"Just take Asano-kun to the school nurse, Kurosaki. I have no doubt that your classmates will brief you on the situation as soon as they can." Misato-sensei said and then gave Ichigo a look that silenced any more questions and objections. Ichigo walked over to Keigo and carefully raised him up to his feet with his arm on his shoulder. Keigo was at least very stunned if nothing more serious. He didn't seem to help a lot when Ichigo carried him out. Orihime sighed and buried her face in her arms. Why did they mess up her life so much? And why were they pestering Tatsuki-chan?

Life was not this complicated before. Bleak, violent, depressing, sure, but not complicated… or she just didn't pay attention to things around her. Things seemed so simple then, but it was probably just an illusion she had painted over her eyes. Orihime could just hope that Bezanthume had some other reason for enrolling in her school than harassing Tatsuki-chan.

**Ichigo**

Ichigo was pretty damn confused right about now. Had Keigo done or said something to piss off Tatsuki enough to make her slam his sorry ass to the blackboard? And what had happened to the window? Had someone gone through there too? If Tatsuki was on a rampage, then why she wasn't in the class when he arrived and why was Misato-sensei so relaxed about it?

"Keigo! Hey, Keigo, what happened with Tatsuki to get you beat up like this?" Ichigo asked and shook Keigo a little. He seemed to be waking up from his daze and was already walking partly on his own. At least Ichigo didn't have to drag him around like a sack of potatoes. Keigo turned his eyes to Ichigo and it seemed like it took a couple of seconds for Ichigo's question to reach his brain. Tatsuki was a very scary girl…

"Transfer students… pissed off Arisawa… It was very… interesting…" Keigo said and then his head drooped back down. Ichigo's confusion did not subside from this statement. Actually, it just grew larger. There were transfer students now? Were they from Soul Society like Rukia? Was there a connection? The timing did seem a little too convenient for it to be a coincidence. Were they some kind of replacements? There were way too many questions. Seriously, why couldn't his life just be a little less complicated? He never asked for her family to be attacked and for him to become a shinigami. It all just kinda… happened.

Ichigo and Keigo reached the corridor where the nurse's office was located in and Ichigo walked up to the door. He thought he heard the sound of something falling to the floor and the sound of a hushed female voice, so he presumed that the nurse was in. He knocked on the door and waited for a reply. The room beyond the door suddenly fell silent. Ichigo had heard something like hard breathing behind the door just a second ago, something resembling moans or such.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo and I'm here to drop off Asano Keigo to be tended for injuries he sustained when, probably, kidding about things he shouldn't have, or just doing anything he shouldn't have been doing at the time. He was seemingly thrown across the room by Arisawa Tatsuki, so is it okay for me to open the door?" Ichigo asked and waited for an answer. He didn't get one for the several minutes he waited for one. He thought he heard a hushed female voice from beyond the door. Either it was his imagination or the school nurse had some reason to ignore him. Ichigo decided to try to open the door.

He tried to open the door and noticed that it just wouldn't budge. Was it locked? The nurse was supposed to be in today. He thought he heard a very low chuckle from behind the door. What exactly was going on here?

"What the… Ichigo, I'm all right already. I can stand." Keigo said in a slightly nasal voice and stumbled away from Ichigo. He pinched the bridge of his nose and snorted in. His face was filled with relief a second later.

"Good thing it doesn't seem to be broken. Damn, Arisawa really packs a punch. She threw me on the blackboard just because I happened to be close to her. That just doesn't seem fair. Oh yeah, Ichigo, we have two new transfer students." Keigo blabbed on in his usual way. At least it seemed like there was no major brain damage… On top of the injury he probably got when falling on his head as a child. There was probably no reason to go to the nurse now, so it didn't matter if she wasn't here… or busy or whatever.

"Are you alright to be walking around now?" Ichigo asked and watched Keigo stumble ahead. He was able to stay standing without any support, so it couldn't be that serious, right? Well, the nurse wasn't here so there wasn't much he could do about it. He caught up with Keigo and they headed back to class together.

"So, where were these transfer students you mentioned? I didn't see any new faces in class just now." Ichigo asked when they were climbing up the stairs. Keigo turned to Ichigo and stopped on the middle of the staircase. Ichigo stopped a couple of steps above him and turned to face Keigo.

"You didn't see her on your way to class then? She is just absolutely beautiful, just like an angel." Keigo said and his eyes glazed over and a dreamy expression fell upon his face. Ichigo sighed and then asked who Keigo was talking about.

"Lily Copperwail, of course! And I don't know if it runs in their family, but both of the Copperwails are really freaking brave. They actually had the guts to piss off Tatsuki, not once, but twice. First Ben went and made out with her and then Lily –" Keigo started to explain energetically, using the new transfer students' names totally naturally, before Ichigo interrupted him.

"Wait just a minute! What was that part about Tatsuki again? I must have been hearing things, because I thought you said that one of the transfer students _made out with_ _her. _On the first class of their first day?"Ichigo asked in a very shocked tone. Who the hell could be so suicidal to do that? And doesn't making out mean that Tatsuki kissed back? What the hell was going on?

"Oh, he was kicked out through a window ten seconds after they stopped. He was alright though. He seems to be even tougher than Chad, if not tougher, then definitely braver... and bigger." Keigo said with an admiring tone in his voice. Ichigo just listened as Keigo babbled on and gradually gave him an image of what exactly had happened. Ichigo had a hard time believing that Keigo was speaking the truth and some things he was going to believe only when he saw them with his own two eyes. No one can be eight feet tall, can they?

**Lilith**

Humans were more fun than she ever remembered. The Tatsuki girl had chased her around the school for about ten minutes. Lilith had a feeling she kept on chasing her for that long just because she had been painfully accurate on drawing her thoughts. Now the girl had forgiven her for her "artistic misdemeanor" and had actually complimented her on her artistic talent. Lilith had just smiled and thanked her. She didn't feel like disrupting the class any more. Misato-sensei seemed to have a headache. Lilith had requested for her notebook back and she had handed it to her after she promised to actually write notes in it, and not to show her drawings to anyone. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. She enjoyed seeing the stunned expression on this "Kurosaki Ichigo's" face when he saw her. She had just waved her hand to him and smiled a little, causing the boy to blush and turn away. Fun little playthings they are…

Now she was sitting in the shade of a large tree on the school grounds. She had chosen to sit next to Chizuru just to see how she squirmed uncomfortably. She had been an especially sweet snack and Lilith wished to have another taste of her, but playing with her in the mean time would be fun. She leaned back and looked at the people gathered around her.

"Thanks for letting me have lunch with you guys. I was kind of worried that you guys would feel uncomfortable around me when I saw Tatsuki's reaction. I'm glad that you're not so lacking in a sense of humor as your friend Tatsuki here. Really, I am." Lilith said with a cheery tone and looked over the people around her. Tatsuki did not look happy, but she did not attack her. That was a good sign "So, should we introduce ourselves for starters. My name's Copperwail Lily, as you already know." Lilith turned her eyes to a slender girl with long straight black hair.

"Kunieda Ryou, nice to meet you. I'm on the track team." The girl said and turned her attention back to the book she was reading when Lilith ran her eyes up and down her body. She had a way of making people feel uncomfortable; she liked to see their reactions. She turned to a petite girl with short brown hair held back by hairpins.

"I am Ogawa Michiru, nice to meet you, Lily." She said and bowed slightly towards Lily. Lily smiled and bowed back. The girl blushed slightly. She was such a cute little thing… Lilith turned to Tatsuki and Orihime.

"I already know you two; Arisawa Tatsuki and Inoue Orihime, the nice bombshell and the bitchy hottie." Tatsuki clenched her fists and there was a vein popping out on her forehead, but Lily either didn't notice or ignored it and turned to Chizuru sitting next to her. "But putting that aside, what's your name, Red?" Lily asked and leaned closer to Chizuru. She placed her hand on Chizuru's lower back and drew small circles with her hand. They were positioned so that none of the other girls could see what she was doing. Chizuru gasped slightly and turned to Lily with surprise and something resembling fright in her eyes. Yes, she was a fun one to play with. Lily leaned even closer to her and repeated her question.

"I – My name – Uh…" She stopped in mid-sentence and had to turn her eyes away from Lily's to continue. "I'm Honshou Chizuru, nice to meet you, Lily." Chizuru said, blushing and looking to the side. Lily let out a small laughter as she leaned back from Chizuru. She leaned back on the grass, supporting herself on her palms.

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine, Chizuru." She turned to the other girls around her and checked them over once again. "I hope we can be friends from this point onwards. I don't know how you feel about me, but I think you are nice people and the kind I would like to have as friends. I know I can be a bit straight forward in stating my opinions on things at times and that you might find it offending, but I mean no harm. Feel free to tell me if I go too far." Lilith glanced at Tatsuki when she said this. She didn't approve of Tatsuki's reaction, but didn't say anything about it. She had more fun running from her than she would have had chasing her. Tatsuki was surprisingly agile for a human. Lilith was almost out of breath when she finally stopped chasing her. Lilith picked up her bag and opened it and then started searching through it for her lunch. The girls around her did the same. Tatsuki was right about to bite down on her sandwich when Lilith suddenly stood up.

**Tatsuki**

"Wait, don't eat that sandwich!" Lily yelled and took a step towards Tatsuki. Tatsuki stopped and wondered what could be wrong with her eating a sandwich. Did she do something to it? Tatsuki didn't think that there could have been a chance for something like that. Lily walked over to her and kneeled down in front of her.

"What are you –" Tatsuki said before she was interrupted by Lily pressing her lips against hers and using her surprise to slip her tongue inside Tatsuki's mouth. Tatsuki felt Lily's tongue exploring her mouth and grazing her teeth before she was able to push her away.

"Where the hell did that come from, you… you nymphomaniac!" Tatsuki screamed and wiped her mouth on her forearm. She _did not _swing that way. "If you feel like kissing a girl, then kiss Chizuru! I'm sure she wouldn't mind!" Tatsuki screamed and pointed towards Chizuru. She looked rather shocked about the whole thing. She must be thinking along the same lines. Chizuru probably wouldn't mind Lily kissing her, she'd probably love it.

"Hmm…" Lily licked his lips and tapped her lower lip with her index finger. "He was right… You did have strawberries for breakfast. That had been bothering me for some time now." Lily said and walked back to her bag like nothing had happened. She started peeling the banana and was about to take a bite out of it before she noticed that the girls around her were staring at her.

"What?" Lily asked and looked at each of them for an answer. Michiru was the one to speak up.

"Lily-kun… You went too far." She said in a timid voice and started searching through her bag for her lunch. The girls ate their lunches in silence for a couple of minutes, trying to forget that anything even happened. Lily finished her apple and turned to Tatsuki again.

"So, how was it?" Lily asked Tatsuki. Tatsuki raised an eyebrow and Lily continued. "Benny, how was Benny? You seemed to be enjoying yourself. Are you two dating or something?" Tatsuki blushed and looked away, but the other girls turned to her and waited for an answer. They were just as interested about it as Lily was.

"He sexually assaulted me in the middle of class! How should I feel about that? He's a creepy pervert and there's nothing going on between us!" Tatsuki screamed and turned her head away with a blush on her face. She hoped she could make the blush go away, but remembering that kiss… She couldn't help it.

"You moaned…" Lily pointed out. Tatsuki turned to her with fire in her eyes.

"I DID NOT!" She screamed and raised a fist towards Lily. Lily raised both of her hands in front of her and waved them back and forth defensively.

"I'm just stating the facts, Tatsuki, no need to get violent." She said while laughing nervously. Tatsuki looked at the faces of her friends around her and saw that they did not believe her. They wanted to hear the truth, even Orihime seemed interested. That was a surprise actually…

"Well… He was not bad…" Tatsuki said while playing with a blade of grass next to her. The girls around her made an "Hmm…" sound and looked away. It was obvious they did not believe her, or at least they knew that she was in denial about it.

"Come on, Tatsuki, tell us the truth. He must have been pretty amazing for you to moan like that. And I know I saw tongue in there. Really, how was it?" Lily asked and the other girls nodded to encourage Tatsuki to talk. Tatsuki opened and closed her mouth, torn between the humiliation of telling them the truth and the inconvenience of lying to them.

"Well, it was… he was… hot." Tatsuki said and her eyes trailed off into the distance when the memory of him kissing her surfaced from her mind. Her friends giggled as one, the only exceptions being Orihime and Chizuru. Chizuru was busy staring at Lily and Orihime seemed to be lost in thought.

"Oh, hot indeed… You're more perverted than I thought, Tatsuki-chan." Lily said while laughing out loud. Tatsuki shot a murderous glance at her and Lily restrained herself. Tatsuki sighed and calmed her nerves before talking again.

"I mean that he felt hot, like he had a fever or something… Maybe that's what's making him take so long at the nurse. It's lunchtime already and he's still not back." Tatsuki wondered out loud and looked around the grounds for a sign of his huge figure. It's not like he would be hard to miss…

"Uhm… Don't you think that he's scary? I think I would be petrified if he ever spoke to me directly…" Ogawa Michiru said in a meek voice. It looked like the carefree manner they were talking about someone who was eight feet tall and had said he drank the blood of the innocent as a joke was puzzling her.

"Well, now that you mention it, he does have this… "Bad boy" vibe around him… almost demonic, you know what I mean? He seems dangerous." Kunieda Ryou pointed out and took her attention away from her manga. The girls around her nodded their heads in agreement and then proceeded to speculate what kind of horrible crimes had he committed for him to be forced to travel so much. Tatsuki knew that she should just go along with their speculation, but still… He had fought back the immense pain he was in to rescue her last night.

"Stop it! You can't just presume that from someone just based on how he looks. He's… He is… not that bad of a guy…" Tatsuki regretted her outburst the moment she closed her mouth. Now she would have to tell them about the first time she met Benjamin Copperwail.

So, Tatsuki told them about what happened after she left Orihime's place and decided to take a shortcut through the park. She told them about the group of men that had assaulted her and how she fought back. She told them about what they were going to do to her and how Benjamin Copperwail had appeared to save her. She told them about the immense pain he was in and how he walked her through the park nonetheless. Tatsuki raised her head and looked at her friends everyone except Lily was blushing and had a dreamy look in their eyes, even Chizuru. That was a big surprise actually; maybe she wasn't as much of a raging lesbian as she led to believe.

"Wow…" The girls sighed as one and trailed off each into their own fantasies. Tatsuki blushed and looked away. Great, now her friends had a crush on the guy that was interested in her… Not like she cared or anything. Why would she?

"Hey, isn't P.E just about to start?" Tatsuki reminded her friends to snap them out of their own little worlds. She nudged Orihime to get her out of her own world. They got up and started walking towards the lockers.

"Where is Benjamin? The boys' P.E teacher is pretty strict. He should show up soon. Lily, do you have his number or something?" Kunieda Ryou asked Lily. Lily turned back towards the way they came and raised her hands on either side of her mouth.

"YO, BENNY! P.E'S ABOUT TO START! GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR ALREADY!" Lily yelled and then turned back to walking towards the lockers. Tatsuki and her friends looked at her retreating back and then looked back to the direction she just shouted towards. They were surprised to see a eight feet tall man drop down from the tree they were just eating their lunches under.

"Yeah, yeah…" Benjamin Copperwail stretched leisurely and yawned. "No need to shout, I know." He said and walked past the girls without even glancing at them.

**Bezanthume**

Bezanthume wondered if he should thank Kurosaki Ichigo. Honshou Chiyo had really fired up after Kurosaki Ichigo had tried to gain entry. She was probably one of those exhibionistic types. She had lasted for a good two hours. Now that he had that out of his system for the time being he could try and figure out how to fulfill his contract with Inoue Orihime to more detail.

The subject that humans called physical education, or something along those lines, seemed simple enough. What he was able to gather was that the goal was just to move and play competitive games. He dressed in the required uniform and stood there as the man in baggy clothes told them to run in circles until he told otherwise, that was simple enough.

He noticed that humans were even weaker he had remembered, since after he finished his twentieth lap the rest of the boys were only running their fifth or staring at him in awe. Maybe he should have held back a little, just to look more human, but he was barely out of breath. He noticed that Lilith was having a similar problem, but at least she was genuinely out of breath after she beat Kunieda Ryou in a 100 meter sprint. Her lungs hadn't fully recovered from the immense physical trauma that being buried by moon dust for centuries and being impaled by a sword had caused.

"Damn, dude, what are you? You made out with Arisawa and she's not trying to kill you for it and now you can run for a mile without breaking a sweat." Asano Keigo said and stopped next to him. He had finished his sixth lap and was out of breath and sweating. He supported his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Bezanthume was spared the inconvenience of answering the idiot's question when the P.E teacher called them and told them that they were playing a game called baseball.

Bezanthume waved Lilith off to the side before they started. Lilith had also noticed that there was someone hiding in the trees and prying on them. Bezanthume had been able to pry into the spies mind enough to know that she was after someone in the class he was in, but whoever the spy was she had been trained to conceal her presence completely and prying into her mind was hard without concentrating.

"You noticed it as well, right? She could be after you, since you had a lock of your hair taken by a shinigami, or someone from this class. Either way, this did not happen in the previous timeline, so something that we have done has caused that spy to come here, so we should at least investigate." Bezanthume said to Lilith. Lilith opened her mouth, but noticed that she actually didn't have anything to add to that.

"Okay, I'll keep my mind as open as possible. Just tell me what to do." Lilith said and then ran back to her group. It ended up that they were playing in mixed teams and Bezanthume was in the group that was to swing the stick to hit the ball. Bezanthume watched as the humans swung the bat as hard as they could and got the ball to fly pretty far. It wouldn't be too hard to aim where to shoot that ball… Bezanthume had an idea as to how to subdue the spy without letting Inoue Orihime know about it.

"**Lilith, I'm going to knock the spy unconscious with the baseball. Go after the ball and immobilize her so that we can interrogate her later. Got that?" **Bezanthume communicated to Lilith. Lilith nodded in response and moved to the backfield.

**Soi Fong**

Soi Fong couldn't believe that she was doing this. Damn that bastard Mayuri! Why did he have to call that favor just now? Well, being the captain of the second squad gave you some freedom as it was to disappearing suddenly. There were several high-ranking noble houses that had the habit to request her for urgent top secret missions, so coming up with an excuse wasn't hard and she could probably get through this without anyone knowing who she was doing this for. At least she hoped so. She really disliked Kurotsuchi Mayuri. The guy was just downright creepy.

Well, the only person she could match with the characteristics Mayuri had specified was the girl standing in the backfield. She was the only one with luminescent platinum blond hair and she probably was the one Kurotsuchi was looking for. Soi Fong had been watching this group of humans play around for a while and had noticed the astonishing athletics feats this girl and the handsome giant had committed. They were no normal humans, but still she could sense no overflowing spiritual power that would explain their exceptional qualities. It was no surprise that Mayuri wanted to experiment on them.

BANG!

What was that sound just now? Sounded like a –

Soi Fong's world was covered in darkness as she felt the baseball colliding with her skull. She was aware that she started falling down towards the ground from the branch she was sitting on, but was knocked out cold when her body hit the ground.

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**AHA! Guess you didn't see that coming! I love cliffhangers... Bye!  
**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


	14. Living Arrangements

**Hi there! I finally got this done and I regret to say that it is long, so forgive me. More at the end of the chapter. Enjoy reading this and don't forget to review when you are done.**

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**Chapter Eleven**

**Living Arrangements**

Lilith ran behind tree were the baseball had hit and saw a petite girl lying on the ground with a forming bruise on her forehead. Damn, Benny was really good with projectiles. He had been able hit her right between the eyes. Lilith took a few steps toward the girl in black loose fitting clothes that were meant to make it easy to move and not to make a sound. What was she, a ninja or something? Lilith kneeled down next to the girl and touched the forming bruise on her forehead. She was actually pretty cute now that she got a good look at her…

The ninja girl moved and groaned in her sleep. She was pretty tough to even try and get up after Benny hit her with something, projectile or not. But well, Benny had told Lilith to immobilize the girl and her waking up would make that a lot harder, so she would have to do something. Lilith licked her lips. She was completely forced into this, it's not like she was hungry, or that she liked kissing people and sucking out their emotional energy… at all.

Lilith raised the girl up on her arms with her left hand placed under the ninja girl's torso and her right on the back of the ninja girl's head to keep it up for easier access. The girl was really small, but Lilith could feel hardened and trained muscles under the ninja uniform. She was probably fast as lightning when fully awake, so Lilith didn't want to wait for her to wake up. Lilith pressed her lips on the girl's lips, which were surprisingly soft for such a tomboyish looking girl. She made sure to move the tongue out of the way with her own before she concentrated on sucking out the girl's energy.

Lilith didn't have that many spells to use for restraining people from moving, so this was the most convenient way for her to ensure that the girl would not run the moment she woke up. Lilith had a feeling that she had been trained to untie the most impossible of knots in ninja school… or wherever she was trained in the art of the ninja. Her kisses left people drained of energy for hours and if she were to take it too far, they would die. She didn't want that. She was an angel after all; she was more gifted in preserving life than taking it. Benny was the one that could burn down acres of land if he were in a bad mood.

The ninja girl regained consciousness just when Lilith started to feel her energy flowing into her. That was close, if she would have hesitated on kissing the girl, then she would have used her ninja skills to break her hold and escape. Lilith was not going to risk angering Bezanthume again by letting another petite girl get away. Actually, even though the girl seemed to be surprised about the situation, not actually resisting it… Weird. Could this be another lesbian? Oh, damn, I bet her passion would be delicious. Now she was only draining her out of her general energy to make sure she had none to move around. That and some rope would be more than enough.

The girl quickly fell limp on Lilith's arms and Lilith stopped draining her after a couple of seconds. She'd rather play it safe. Lilith set the girl down against the tree… and realized she had no rope to tie her with. What to do now? Lilith tapped her bottom lip while she tried to figure out a solution for this. Wait… I set her down against a tree. Lilith wondered if there was some minor brain damage present from her stay up on the moon, since she didn't acknowledge that fact up until now.

Lilith set her hand on the rough bark of the tree and started singing out words in her maiden language. She tried keeping her voice hushed, since at least Orihime would be able to hear it. That would cause for her to ask questions and it seemed like Benny didn't want that. Lilith felt how the tree's consciousness awakened and it started to respond to her words in its own serene way. Lilith liked trees; they were so calm and soothing. And it seemed like trees liked her, since they usually answered her requests. Lilith relayed the favor she wanted to ask from the tree within her song and waited if it agreed to it.

The ground under the ninja girl was disturbed and the roots of the tree slithered out and wrapped around the wrists and legs of the ninja girl. The tree even went as far as to entangle the ninja girl's hands in its roots and then pull them under the ground. For some reason Lilith found the sight of the ninja girl's petite form grappled by the tentacle-like roots exiting… Well, that wasn't such a mystery. The girl was cute and what she was doing now would be considered bondage if she didn't have a reason behind it. Hmm… That Chizuru girl would agree if she were to suggest that to her, but would it be wise for Lilith to toy with humans anymore? Well, wise or not, it would be fun. Lilith tore two slits of clothes out of the ninja girl's clothes and improvised a gag to put into her mouth. She didn't know if the girl knew any spells or something like that, so she decided to play it safe.

"Thanks a lot, big guy. I won't forget this." Lilith said in a hushed voice and gave the bark of the tree a small kiss. The tree rustled its branches slightly and Lilith heard its faint answer as she ran back to the game with the baseball in hand.

_You're welcome… You'd better not, fallen…_

**Ichigo**

"What the hell…" Ichigo said and stared at Benjamin Copperwail. Benjamin just handed the bat to the next one up on the plate and started running the bases in leaps that were three times longer than a normal sized persons. He wasn't that fast in his movements, but with the distance he covered in one step he didn't have to be. Benjamin ran through the first two bases when Lily finally emerged out from the trees with the ball in her hand. Lily drew her hand back just when Benjamin ran through the third base and started towards home base. Ichigo had just enough time to register the white ball speeding towards his face before it collided with his forehead.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, Kurosaki! I was not aiming for you!" Lily shouted from the back of the field as Ichigo stumbled back holding his head in pain. That girl really had a good arm… Wait, did she just say she was aiming for _someone? _Did she understand how this game worked? Well, that didn't matter for now. Where did that ball go?

"Throw the damn ball, Kurosaki Ichigo, there's a line." A low voice said from behind Ichigo. Benjamin seemed to have made it back to home base. Ichigo looked around on the ground for the ball and then threw it when the next batter was ready. The game continued without any further incident until it was time for the infield players go to the outfield and Benjamin ended up as the pitcher.

"Keep your eye on the ball." He said and didn't wait for the batter, Keigo, to be ready before drawing his hand back. Ichigo was unable to see the ball at all, but he heard the whistling noise it made when it sped past Keigo and caused the catcher to be thrown back. Now, if Lily had a good arm, then Benjamin's arm was incredible. What exactly was he?

"How am I supposed to hit that? That's gotta be against the rules" Keigo screamed to the P.E teacher. Benjamin didn't seem to care about the whole affair, but he seemed to be annoyed by Keigo. Not surprising, but the look in his eyes was dangerous for a second before he opened his mouth.

"I believe it is a valid strategy to throw the ball in such a way that does not allow the opposing team to hit it. Am I wrong, teacher?" Benjamin calmly said and motioned for the catcher to throw the ball back. He hesitated and shook the hand he had caught the ball with. The hand must have felt numb.

"Well, you're not wrong, but… hold back a little." The teacher said and then retreated back to watch over the class. Benjamin threw the ball twice and then Keigo was replaced by Tatsuki. Ichigo noticed that Benjamin had a slight smirk on his face and there was a vein popping up on Tatsuki's forehead because of that. Now this was going to be trouble…

"Come on, bring it! Don't you dare go easy on me!" Tatsuki shouted and took the stance. She had a very concentrated look on her face and an air of hostility around her. Any other man present except for Benjamin was afraid of her right now; Ichigo felt no shame in admitting that he was part of that group.

"Oh, I bet you like it rough…" Benjamin said before throwing the ball again. Tatsuki didn't even try to hit it for some reason. The reason was painfully obvious a second later.

"What the hell do you mean by that, you pervert?! Stop saying weird shit and focus, you bastard!" Tatsuki yelled and took the stance again. The catcher threw the ball back to Benjamin and he didn't waste any time in drawing his hand back and throwing the ball. There was the rewarding sound of the wooden bat hitting the ball and Ichigo saw the ball flying into the blue of the sky. There was a moment of silence before Keigo broke it with a simple question.

"Do we have a spare?"

They didn't. You would think that a school had more than one baseball, but it seemed like they had just ran out.

**Orihime**

Orihime was not sure what to think about Bezanthume right now. She had just heard how he had saved Tatsuki last night, but she didn't know if he had any ulterior motives for doing it, so she shouldn't think of him as a hero just yet. He had kissed Tatsuki for some reason this morning, so was that his version of payment for what he had done? That was sick and twisted thinking, but regrettably Orihime couldn't convince herself that Bezanthume did it on those reasons alone. He just seemed like he was having fun playing with Tatsuki's feelings. She didn't know what to think about his supposed heroics last night, but playing with Tatsuki like that was just unforgivable.

One thing she would have liked to know was that if Bezanthume had really been in excruciating pain or if he just faked it for some purpose. What could hurt him anyways? He could walk through walls, fly, turn invisible by will and as far as Orihime understood could do magic. He was practically invincible… He was a demon, after all. No man could be that… shameless, confident, cruel and kind at the same time, ferocious, manipulative, deceitful, impressive…

"'Hime-chan, what ya thinking about with that dreamy look on your face? Could it be that…" Orihime suddenly became aware of Chizuru being an inch away from her face with a lecherous smile on her face. "You have finally awakened to your true desires!" Chizuru shouted energetically and tried to kiss her. Orihime saw Tatsuki running towards them from the corner of her eye, but Orihime's right arm was faster. Orihime suddenly lost all feeling in her right arm and it shot out to punch Chizuru in the jaw and then proceeded to grab her left arm and twist it behind her back.

"Ow! Ow! Oww… 'Hime-chan, you're so forceful…" Chizuru said with a forming bruise and a blush on her face. Orihime regained the control of her right arm and let go of Chizuru. Her arm felt completely normal but her hand still felt numb and there was an unpleasant prickling sensation when the feeling gradually returned.

"I'm sorry, Chizuru-chan! I don't know what… came over me…" Orihime said and her voice faded away as she realized that it had been her right hand that had moved on its own, the hand with the ring that Bezanthume had given her. He never explained it to her, not that she ever had a chance to ask him. Why was it on her finger and why did it protect her from either from danger or from being sexually assaulted? Was it really some charm to keep her safe? It seemed to work as one. Why would it matter to Bezanthume if Chizuru were to kiss her? She could understand the need to protect her from being run over by a car, but why would it matter to a demon if she was sexually assaulted by her friend? You would think that he would only find that amusing. There were way too many questions in her head now. She should just stop thinking about it for now and ask him later. Orihime had noticed that she had been doing a lot of thinking lately. That was kind of weird; she had never been the one for logical reasoning.

"Nice one, Orihime! Seems like that stuff I taught you stuck in your head after all!" Tatsuki shouted out cheerily and patted Orihime on the head. Orihime turned towards Tatsuki and smiled meekly. She happened to catch Bezanthume looking over to her with a serious expression on his face. Had he caused that somehow just now? Was that silver ring some kind of remote control for her body? That actually made sense…

"**No, it is not. I'll explain it later. Now just don't think about it and try to steer away from life and death situations." **Bezanthume's voice rumbled out from everywhere. Bezanthume showed no signs of any strain while talking into her mind. He wasn't even looking at her. He was standing there with the other boys as the teacher told them what they were to do for the rest of the class. Bezanthume was watching the teacher and it looked like it made the man feel uncomfortable, since he seemed to stumble at his words and kept glancing at Bezanthume while slowly inching away from him. Bezanthume raised his hand and suggested something that caused for the boys around him to glance at him like he grew another head. Whatever he said caused for the teacher to stop moving for a minute or so and then shoo the boys away.

"Class dismissed, says the teacher, you too, girls!" Keigo yelled before running over to where the lockers were. Orihime and the girls around her were too stunned to say anything. What just happened? Did Bezanthume cause the class to be dismissed by saying something? What could he have possibly said that would cause the class to been dismissed?

"Yes! First day of school: I pass with flying colors! Now, let's hit the showers and give Chizuru something to fantasize about!" Lilith yelled out before dashing towards the girls' locker rooms. Again, the girls were left dumbfounded and wondering how exactly they should react to her words. Every one of them had some shade of red on their cheeks, but Chizuru was practically beet red. So, it seemed like Lilith was aware of her sexuality…

**Soi Fong**

Soi Fong's consciousness returned hundred times slower than usual. She was the captain of the Mobile Correction Corps, so she had trained herself to recover from any shock in an instant and to awake from even the deepest of sleep in seconds. When you were an assassin and a spy for a living, you didn't have the luxury of dropping your guard for even a minute. The last time she had done that was with Yoruichi-sama and Soi Fong ended up being betrayed by her.

Soi Fong shook herself out from the past and concentrated on her current situation. She felt a gag in her mouth that seemed to be made out of pieces of cloth torn from her uniform. Her legs and arms were also immobilized and it was practically impossible to move either. Thin rope was wrapped around her legs and her hands felt like they were being pulled below the ground by the same kind of rope. It would be impossible to use normal kido spells with her mouth gagged and hands tied like this and she must have been drugged while she was out, since she was not able to gather the power to activate Shunko. She felt absolutely drained. She was in a whole lot of trouble. No one knew where she was and wouldn't come to help her for days. All she could do now was sit and wait for a chance to make a move.

"I'll have to congratulate you, she's really immobilized. What did you do, ask the tree a favor?" A low male voice asked in a matter-of-fact tone and Soi Fong heard heavy footsteps approaching her. She decided to keep her eyes closed and try to gather some information about her captors.

"Yeah, I'll have to give it some fertilizer or something later. I kissed her just in case she had some other tricks up her sleeve." A melodic female voice said in the same carefree tone. Soi Fong heard faster and lighter footsteps along with the heavy ones. The size difference between the two must have been considerable for their paces to differ so much. That could be bad, but Soi Fong had confidence that she could outmaneuver someone large, like the man, but she wasn't sure about the woman. She had to except the worst. No matter the way they accomplished it, they _were _able to knock out a captain.

"She seems to have trained her mind to fight foreign mental influences to some extent… Making her talk might be the easiest way to find out why she's here." The low male voice said and Soi Fong felt how he sat down in front of her. He was of considerable size judging by the tremor. He was near her and had a long reach… Getting away might be more complicated than she originally thought.

"How are you going to do that? Are you planning on using that… on her?" There was a pause in her sentence, so she must have used some gesture to get her point across instead of words. She had thought that humans could not have captured her, but what exactly were these people? It sounded like both of them had exceptional abilities and Soi Fong was still unable to sense even a shred of spiritual power from either of them.

"That wouldn't work with her mind set. She's been trained not to give information away whatever the situation might be, so her mind would not co-operate with the spell and would be torn or fragmented and that goes against my contract… I guess I'll have to use the old way." The male voice said and Soi Fong heard a slight sigh.

"Hmm… Sloth? No, that would just make her go to sleep… I could try and persuade her before you do anything. I have more of a chance at it than you ever will and she won't be hurt if I fail." The female voice suggested. There was an undertone in her voice that suggested towards… excitement? My god, just what kind of people had tied her up? What exactly did she mean by "persuading"?

"Do as you wish…" The male voice said with a barely audible undertone of amusement in his voice. Soi Fong heard the light rustle of fabric as the woman got up on her feet and then the sound of her footsteps as she walked right in front of Soi Fong. The gag was taken out of Soi Fong's mouth and a slender hand kept her head up as she pretended to be unconscious. Soi Fong felt how the woman with the melodic voice sat on her lap with her knees on both sides of her. She moved her hands to both of Soi Fong's cheeks and Soi Fong felt the warmth of her breath on her face. What the hell was this woman doing?

**Bezanthume**

Bezanthume watched while trying to keep his amusement in check to not let Lilith know that the ninja was awake. He was intrigued as to what the ninja girl will do when Lilith tries to use one of her charms that required close contact. He knew that Lilith could just place a hand on the girl's forehead and the effect would be nearly as powerful, but Lilith just couldn't resist doing it in the more intimate way. Lilith cupped both of the girl's cheeks and bowed down to kiss her.

The ninja girl suddenly opened her eyes and struck her head out aggressively. Lilith was knocked back holding her nose from the girl's sudden head butt. Bezanthume threw his head back from laughter and wiped the tears out of his eyes a minute later. The girl had spirit; he had to give her that. Lilith got up from the ground as soon as the stars stopped shooting across her field of vision.

"You bitch… my nose… This is not funny, Benny!" Lilith mumbled and set her nose back in place. The ninja was checking them both over with a trained eye. Her eyes stayed on him for a while longer than Lilith. She was all business right now. All she was thinking was ways of getting out of her current situation and she didn't let Lilith's or Bezanthume's extraordinary appearances affect her. She was still blushing from having Lilith so close to kissing her though…

"Oh, it is! It's fucking hilarious!" Bezanthume between fits of laughter. He fell down on his back while holding his sides that hurt from laughing. He had a big voice and it seemed like laughing was pretty taxing for his body if he was really amused.

"Why have you captured me? Do you know who you're dealing with? You will not get away with this." The ninja girl said in a confident tone. Bezanthume closed his eyes while still chuckling at Lilith getting head butted and looked a little deeper into her mind to at least find out her name. Her mind was closed up and focused, but she was also thinking about herself and her name was on the surface.

"Soi Fong, my name is Benjamin Copperwail and we have no intention to hurt you, well, I can't be sure about Lily here, but at least we will not kill you. So, could you just tell us why you're here, so that we can get this over with? I will know if you lie, so try not to do that. I would not like to endanger your sanity." Bezanthume said while carefully keeping his tone polite and keeping eye contact with the girl. Her mind raced and Bezanthume knew that she was thinking about if it was worth to keep her objectives secret. Seemed like it wasn't an official mission she was on right now, so she didn't have anything else stopping her but her professional pride. It would be either her fear of the situation she was in or the negative thoughts for her contractor that would make her spill the information.

"I… I am here for…" The information was surfacing from the depths of her mind and Bezanthume could read her thoughts more efficiently if he closed his eyes, but for her to keep telling the information and to keep it in the forefront of her mind the eye contact was necessary. He wasn't hypnotizing her or anything like that, it was just simple psychology and the extraordinary glow of his eyes that made the impact. Bezanthume remembered Lilith to stay still and quiet. He would rather not drag this out longer than necessary.

"I was sent here to look for a girl with long platinum blonde hair. I just found her when I was knocked out by… what?" Soi Fong asked and Bezanthume went through the information she left out. This Kurotsuchi Mayuri seemed like a real creepy bastard. Seemed like the lock of hair Lilith had lost to Kuchiki Byakyua had made its way to the twelfth division and Kurotsuchi Mayuri had taken an interest and called a favor. It also seemed like this Soi Fong girl was a whole lot older than she looked and was a captain of the something called the Gotei 13. One of the most powerful and fast shinigami was captured by a baseball and a nymphomaniac angel… pathetic.

"A baseball. I know everything I need to." Bezanthume said and reached out to Soi Fong with his right hand. He ran his index finger along her neck and released two small doses of energy that induced both Sloth and Lust in her system. "There you go, Lily. She should be more docile now." Bezanthume said and started walking away and as soon he was out of Soi Fong's field of vision he spread his wings and launched into the sky.

**Soi Fong**

Whatever that man had done when touching her was making her feel fatigued and a little… flustered by the sight of the angelic blonde sitting back on her lap like before. How could she have not noticed how beautiful she was until now? She was almost as stunning as Yoruichi-sama. When the stunning blonde cupped her cheeks again she noticed that she wasn't resisting her touch to the least. She actually liked the feeling of the warmth and softness of her skin against hers and the feel of her breath tickling her face; they were making her feel dizzy. Her heart was pounding against her chest and anything else in the world gradually faded away until her and the gorgeous blonde were the only things in existence within her world.

"Good girl… Good girl…" The blue eyed beauty said in a teasing whisper and leaned in to nibble her left ear. Soi Fong felt how her body was shivering from the sensory overload. The blonde woman giggled softly in her ear and then whispered softly. "Damn, you smell good right now… but business before pleasure, and I have to pay you back for my nose."

Soi Fong had no chance to ask her what she was talking about before she was already pressing her lips against hers and tempting Soi Fong to open her mouth with her tongue. Soi Fong instinctively opened her mouth and the world melted away.

**Tatsuki**

"Tatsuki, are you alright?" Orihime asked in a worried voice and snapped her friend out of her thoughts. She would never admit it, but she had been thinking about Benjamin and how warm that kiss had been. She just couldn't get it out of her head. His hands had been so strong and his lips –

"Tatsuki?" Orihime asked and stepped in front of her to gain her attention. God, did she just start thinking about it the second after she snapped out of the exact same thoughts? Damn, I'm pathetic for letting it affect me so much. Get a grip!

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just deep in thought, that's all. I'm fine." Tatsuki said and didn't even believe her own words. Benjamin had stolen her first kiss and for some reason she didn't mind. Well, it was a pretty incredible kiss… NO, don't think about it! Sexual assault, it was sexual assault, nothing more, nothing less! She should hate his guts right now, so why in god's name was it so impossible for her? Sure she was pissed at him for doing something like that, but she didn't feel violated or anything. She felt pretty good actually. The cold she felt in the morning was gone and she didn't feel as hyper either. She still had a vague feeling that she could punch her fist through a brick wall, but she wasn't stupid enough to actually try. That would be impossible for any human.

"Tatsuki, are you thinking about Be – Copperwail-kun?" Orihime asked Tatsuki in a rare moment of insight and caused her to blush and be at a loss of words. How did Orihime catch on to that? Well, it's not like it would take a genius to figure out what she'd be thinking, taking the current events into account. There was nothing to think about that wasn't connected to him. He had caused a terrific stir in the lives of her friends.

"What? Well… yes." No use denying the obvious. "Where was he for those three hours after he was sent to the nurse's office? That's just bothering me…" Tatsuki said and wished with all her heart that her friend bought it. But now that she thought about it… Where had Benjamin been for those three hours? Had he just left to see a movie or had he been napping in that tree for that whole time? Had he even went to the nurse in the first place? Wait, wasn't Chizuru's mom the nurse? Tatsuki had to wonder how she had reacted to Benjamin, or more importantly, how had Benjamin reacted to her. If he had the guts to come up and kiss her, then… No, do NOT think about that! That's just absurd! She has a daughter the same age, so there's no way that… No, just stop thinking about it already.

"Tatsuki-chan… Did he really save you last night? It's not that I doubt your word, but he is… he just doesn't seem like the type… Are you sure he didn't have… something to gain… or if he really was in pain… Are you sure he didn't touch you?" Orihime asked Tatsuki with a serious look in her eyes that was pretty rare for her. Usually when Orihime asked a question her eyes were glowing with curiosity, but all Tatsuki could see now was worry. Could Orihime be afraid of Benjamin, like Michiru was? Well, he was frighteningly tall and looked like he could rip you apart with his bare hands… Actually, it was probably wise to be a little wary of him.

"Well, he did save me from something horrible, but… it seemed like he was doing it to punish _them _rather than saving _me_… He said that they disgusted him, can't say that I disagree. And from what I saw he was in excruciating pain. And no, he did not touch me, at all… Until today, that is." Tatsuki said and blushed slightly from remembering that. Orihime was watching her with an unnaturally keen eye for a second before letting out a sigh and stretching with her hands behind her head. She looked up to the sky and followed a cloud with her eyes. Somehow, for whatever reason, Orihime's eyes seemed sad when she was looking up at the white puffy cloud. They walked in silence for a while. Tatsuki didn't try to break it, since she was fighting down her blush. She was not the kind of girl to blush because of every single thing.

"Would you like to go and eat at that new Indian restaurant, Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime asked in a sad voice very unlike her. What was going on with her? Was she… No, it couldn't be. Orihime had a crush on Ichigo, so there was no way she could be anything even close to being jealous… right?

"Sure, I'd like that, but… Orihime, what's wrong? You seem kind of down. Did something happen?" Tatsuki asked Orihime. Orihime turned her head to Tatsuki and now she was sure that the look in her eyes was sad. Tatsuki knew that there was something Orihime was not telling her; all the signs were there. She had known Orihime for years and knew when she was troubled. Orihime had always been very open with her problems. So did this mean that she had a reason to stay quiet about it?

"No, nothing happened, really! I'm just thinking about stuff, that's all. Sorry if I drifted off, Tatsuki-chan." Orihime chirped with her sudden depression completely gone. Orihime had always been "moody" like this, but now it just seemed strangely sudden, like she was hiding something. Orihime did not work well under pressure and Tatsuki knew that she could get Orihime to tell her what exactly was going on, but that didn't mean she _should_.

"Okay then, you can tell me when you're ready." Tatsuki said. She was sure that there was something that Orihime was trying to keep from her. Tatsuki had a feeling that it just might be a boyfriend, from the sudden appearance of new jewelry and just from the feeling she got. Did Orihime still have a crush on Ichigo if that was the case? That would definitely trouble her… and the possible him.

"Thank you, Tatsuki-chan…" Orihime said and the sad look lingered in her eyes for a second before she was back to her old self. It didn't seem like a sad look of a teenage girl with boy trouble. It looked more like a sad smile of someone who's been through a lot. Weird…

"I heard that you can choose how spicy you want your chicken and what you get with it. I wonder if they have chocolate ice cream…" Orihime wondered and Tatsuki couldn't help but smirk at the thought of the waiter's face when they learn what Orihime asks of them.

**Bezanthume**

So, what to do now? Honshou Chiyo should be able to handle herself and Inoue Orihime didn't need immediate attention. Soi Fong was better to be left for Lilith to adjust her memories. Lilith was sure to do something nasty to avenge the head butt, but hopefully nothing that would affect the timeline too much. Soi Fong being here was a sure sign that there was no going back to the old timeline and any knowledge he had could be invalid now, but Bezanthume didn't think that this would change Aizen's plans at this point, but he would still have to improvise.

The next logical course of action would probably be to contact Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi and thus establish a way to reach Soul Society. There was the downside that he would probably have to accompany Inoue Orihime and her friends to some extent. That will be boring… hopefully not as boring as the Kurosaki family. If that were the case, he would regrettably be forced to kill them. At least there would be the cat lady to liven up the human entourage.

But how would he accomplish to be taken apart of the Rukia rescue committee? He was only acquainted with Rukia because he had kidnapped her before she was taken back to Soul Society and from Inoue Orihime's memories. Either one was not a reason that he could explain his desire to accompany Ichigo and Co. Maybe Lilith could persuade either Urahara Kisuke or Shihouin Yoruichi to "recruit" him, they knew that Kurosaki Ichigo's power might not be enough. Could he accomplish that without resorting to Lilith's mind tricks?

He was disturbed out of his thoughts as he noticed a black cat with an extraordinarily complex mind was looking straight at him, even though he had his invisibility spell activated. Great, Shihouin Yoruichi was talented in this "kido", just fucking great for him. Bezanthume flexed his wings and flew out of Shihouin Yoruichi's field of vision before settling down under some trees and retracting his wings. He walked out from under the trees and straightened his school uniform before turning the invisibility spell off. He started walking towards the place where the black cat was scanning the sky.

"Would you look at that… a cat?" Bezanthume said and kneeled down on one knee to pet Yoruichi. Yoruichi purred and leaned on his warm hand before snapping out of it and scratching his hand away. Bezanthume had not been aware that something that small and furry could look so murderous. "Bad kitty, bad…" Bezanthume said and laughed. Yoruichi gave him a very dangerous look before looking around if there were any civilians around.

"This is fortunate. I was actually looking for you, Benjamin Copperwail." Yoruichi stated with her misleading male voice and sat down with her tail wrapped around her paws. "Have you heard of a place called Soul Society?"

Bezanthume raised his brows in surprise and wondered if it was possible that luck was smiling on him for a chance. Was Shihouin Yoruichi just about to recruit him to go to Soul Society? That would be very convenient. If he were to have Lilith manipulate their minds too much, then they could catch onto it and everything would be exposed. Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi were very powerful and capable foes and they probably wouldn't appreciate being mentally manipulated.

"I have no idea what kind of club that is, but I'm interested since it has a talking cat as a mascot… Let's walk." Bezanthume said and raised Yoruichi of the ground by the loose skin behind her neck. Her feline body reflexively relaxed and he could place her on his shoulder without any major incident. When Bezanthume let go of the nerve cluster and let Yoruichi stable her footing on his shoulder it was a whole different story. Bezanthume felt how Yoruichi's claws grazed his cheek and the rest of the claws dug through his shirt.

"What do you think you're doing rising me up like that? Do that again and I will castrate you! Why did you raise me up on your shoulder in the first place? I'm getting down, I refuse to play by your whims." Yoruichi stated and Bezanthume felt how she tensed her body to jump down. Bezanthume pressed her down on his right shoulder with his left hand and heard her hiss at him.

"If you're going to tell me about this "Soul Society" thingy, then wouldn't it be a lot more convenient for you to be closer to my ear, so that I could actually hear you? Your current form is not blessed with height, you know…" Bezanthume pointed out and then let go of Yoruichi. She didn't try to jump down from his shoulder, but did give him a bad look.

"Okay, start walking…" She said and Bezanthume was more than happy to comply. It seemed like things were going to work out after all. If he would be able to gain a way to get to Soul Society without resorting to his own way and thus avoid raising attention towards himself, it would be more than good. Bezanthume listened intently as Yoruichi explained Soul Society's general idea and shinigamis' place in it.

"So, basically: You want me to accompany Kurosaki Ichigo and Co. on their little rescue operation to Soul Society." Bezanthume said and sat down on a bench. Yoruichi jumped down off his shoulder and sat next to him on the bench while still in her cat form.

"Yes, that's pretty much it. Will you do it?" Yoruichi asked and turned her yellow eyes to his green ones. Bezanthume glanced at her and then leaned back on the bench and looked up at the sky. Even though he was hoping to get a ride to Soul Society, he would have to be with Kurosaki Ichigo.

"I'm not sure…" Bezanthume said and followed a bird in the sky with his eyes. He heard a weird sizzling sound and there was a bright light where Yoruichi had sat a moment ago. Now there was a hot black woman with violet hair looking at him with a Cheshire cat grin on her lips. It was not like he was dumbfounded by her breasts or smooth ebony skin; it was just that he was surprised she'd actually do it in public. And it was also hard to take his eyes off of her for some reason.

"What about now, Copperwail-kun?" Yoruichi asked in her less misleading voice. She was clearly enjoying the situation. Bezanthume realized that he had imitated a teenagers' reaction without knowing it and wondered about this streak of luck he was having. Bezanthume shook himself out of the surprised mental state and turned his eyes to Yoruichi's yellow ones.

"Okay, I'll do it, but with one condition…" Bezanthume said with a serious voice. He turned to Yoruichi on the bench and pointed a finger at her.

"Which is?" Yoruichi asked in a tentative voice. She didn't like where this was going. She was planning on how badly she would pummel him if Bezanthume were to ask for something highly inappropriate. Bezanthume could not understand humans' varying views on sex. What was so fucking complicated about it? It was completely natural, so why did everyone make such a big deal out of it?

"Hmm…" Now that he knew she would beat him if he were to ask _that, _he had to think about this. "Fight me once… covered only with baby oil… Yes, that's it; that's my condition." Bezanthume watched with great amusement as Yoruichi's dark face got even darker and she opened her mouth either to say something or just from shock. It certainly seemed like she didn't expect for him to ask for such a shameless condition. It was amusing to watch her suddenly become self-conscious about her body and try and come up with a comeback to that.

"…Fuck you…" Yoruichi said while looking away. She was covering her breasts with her left hand and fiddling with her hair with the right. Bezanthume smirked and leaned back. This was amusing…

"I don't hear a no…" He said with the sole intention of ticking her off. He got what he wanted.

"NO!" Yoruichi screamed and punched him in the face. She was surprisingly fast. Bezanthume almost wouldn't have had any time to dodge, but he decided not to dodge. He liked to keep the element of surprise as long as possible, preferably right until the naked duel.

"Okay, forget the baby oil. Just fight me as you are now. Is that okay?" Bezanthume asked while smirking widely. This was fun, very fun. Yoruichi glanced at him and then punched him again after seeing the smirk.

"Okay, I can do that… But the oil would give me a certain tactical advantage though…" Yoruichi said and Bezanthume knew she regretted saying her thoughts out loud, Bezanthume's smirk quirked up a little.

"No one's stopping you from lubing up anyways, you know…" He said and it was hard not to burst out into laughter when he saw Shihouin Yoruichi's facial expression after hearing this statement.

"I am not your bitch!" Shihouin Yoruichi screamed and Bezanthume couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. He leaned back on the bench and laughed towards the sky. His laughter boomed across the park and people glanced at him in surprise. He lost control for a second and raised undue attention to himself. And he also realized that Yoruichi was still in her spirit form and that was why she transformed in public like that. Normal people couldn't see her.

"Yeah, that's right; you're not _my_ bitch…" Bezanthume wondered if he should leave it at that or not. He decided not to. "You're Urahara Kisuke's bitch." Shihouin Yoruichi stood up on the bench and loomed over him ominously with her fist clenched. She had a very frightening facial expression on right then and there.

"_Care to repeat that?" _Shihouin Yoruichi asked through clenched teeth. She didn't resemble a housecat right now; she looked more like a ferocious tiger growling at an ill mannered kid throwing peanuts at it. That's the image Bezanthume got in his head and it certainly didn't help him stop laughing. He only started to laugh louder as he stood up from the bench to dodge the imminent punch to the face.

"Okay… Okay… It's a deal then: I'll accompany Kurosaki Ichigo and Co. to Soul Society and lend you my power if, and only if, you fight me once as you are now, agreed?" Bezanthume asked as he wiped the tears out from the corners of his eyes. These were the times he enjoyed being in a human body. Inconvenient as it was, he could have more fun in it than any other form.

"Agreed… But why do you want to fight me? Do you know who I am? There is no way you could hope to win." Shihouin Yoruichi asked and then transformed back into a black cat. So, there seemed to be a delay between the times she would be able to transform back…

"You are Shihouin Yoruichi, former captain of the Mobile Correction Corps and also of the second squad of the Gotei 13. Don't worry; I know exactly what I'm getting myself into. I just aim to increase my reaction time while fighting against shinigami by fighting against you." Bezanthume said and started walking away. Yoruichi jumped down from the bench and started following him.

"What exactly are you? Your power resembles a Quincy's ability to control spirit particles, but from what I've seen it goes beyond that. You either already had gathered information about us, or someone supplied you with information. If you already knew that I am a former shinigami captain and can turn into a cat, it means that you're either working for the shinigami or the Shihouin family. Which is it?" Yoruichi asked and seemed to be proud of her. She was smart, Bezanthume had to give her that, but how wrong was she…

"Neither. I don't know what the hell these "spirit particles" are and I don't know if I can control them or not. As to what I am… Well, the people in this country have a word that pretty much sums it up. It started with an "E"…" Bezanthume had to search for the word before finally remembering it. "I could be called an "esper"… Yeah, that was the word for it. At least I think so." Bezanthume said in a matter-of-fact tone and shrugged. Yoruichi stopped in her tracks and Bezanthume had to strain his hearing to hear what she muttered to herself.

"You've gotta be kidding me… Well, I shouldn't be so surprised. He doesn't know about spirit particles." Yoruichi said before running off somewhere. Her job was done apparently and for some reason Bezanthume had a feeling that Urahara Kisuke was going to get punched for no apparent reason. He loved messing with humans… in more ways than one.

So, now to get some sleep, he hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep because of the preparations it took to build a believable alias, so now he was going to at least sleep for a couple of hours. More if he could have his way, but a couple of hours would be sufficient. He walked and made a few simple hand signs and muttered words in a secret language to activate the invisibility spell before spreading his wings and launching off into the sky.

**Soi Fong**

Soi Fong jolted up from where she had been lying on the ground. The sudden movement caused her world to spin and her head to throb with pain. What happened? Did she fall from the tree? Apparently, but that couldn't be the full reason for her current situation. Why did she fall from the tree in the first place? She had been watching adolescent humans playing a game that involved a ball and a wooden stick that you used to hit it. She believed it was called "baseball" as you hit the ball in order to gain a chance to run through three bases while the opposing team tried to get the ball into the bases before you. A simple game she would like to try some day. So, she was watching them and… a sudden pain in her right temple.

"Pathetic…" Soi Fong muttered as she realized what had happened. She was hit by a stray ball that was hit by that giant with reddish hair. That would explain why the ball had enough velocity to knock _her _out. Some human in the opposing team came looking for the ball and retrieved it without even noticing her lying under the tree. At least there were no witnesses to this embarrassing little blunder. She wouldn't be able to show her face to her subordinates if they were ever to find out about this.

Soi Fong turned her eyes to the sky and followed a white cloud while it made its way across the sky. It was good to stop and just look into the distance once in a while. She felt relaxed right then and there. She felt rather good for some reason. She looked around the place she was in and saw that the ground below the tree she had fallen out of was disturbed. Did someone bury something? Maybe it was just something silly that a human school girl might hide. Anyways, she shouldn't think too much about it. She allowed her eyes to calmly scan the lush trees around her. here were only a few of them in the school grounds, but they were old enough to give a nice shady place to lay in the heat of the summer. There were several places like that in the Shihouin family grounds back in the day. There were several places like that in the second division's grounds, now that she thought about it. Maybe she should take a day off for once and just sit under one of those trees, staring off into the blue of the sky. That sounded tempting… It had been a while since she just relaxed and recharged her batteries. She had been training and working without a break in between for too long. Soi Fong turned her eyes to a flicker of movement she saw in the corner of her eye and saw –

"A BUTTERFLY!" She noticed herself exclaiming when seeing a yellow butterfly flickering along between the branches of another tree in the school grounds.

Okay…

That was new…

**Orihime**

Orihime was walking home alone after Tatsuki had convinced her to go on and let her walk home alone. Orihime had offered to accompany Tatsuki on her walk home. She said that she would take the long way home to calm her nerves, but that Orihime should just hurry to her apartment before it got too dark. She implied that Orihime would be in more danger of being molested taking her… assets, into account. Orihime had always thought that Tatsuki was more attractive than she was, but Tatsuki made such a big deal out of her breast size…

"What ya thinking about, Orihime-chan?" Lilith's melodic voice chirped out from behind her. Orihime turned around in surprise and saw Lilith standing there, still wearing her school uniform and swinging her bag around merrily. She was obviously in a good mood.

"What happened, Lily-kun? You seem to be in high spirits." Orihime said in a questioning tone. What did angels do for fun anyways?

"Oh, nothing happened! Chizuru just took me out for dinner, that's all. I had forgotten how delicious some of the concoctions you humans make can be. Let's walk!" Lilith chirped and started marching in the direction where Orihime was going.

"Wait, Lily-kun! Did you just say you went on a date with Chizuru-chan?" Orihime asked. Had Lilith agreed to Chizuru's request without realizing Chizuru's motives or was she, an angel, a lesbian? Orihime found that hard to believe. Lilith turned to Orihime while walking and tapped her bottom lip with her index finger. That seemed to be a habit of hers.

"I guess you could call it a date… So, yes, I did go on a date with her. I paid for the food, so you could say that I took her out on a date, but Chizuru picked the restaurant. She looks so cute when she blushes…" Lilith said and then giggled while covering her mouth. Orihime was in shock and walked along with Lilith for a while. She was trying to digest everything Lilith had just said.

"Wait, you paid for the food? Where did you get the money?" Orihime asked, deciding to let the fact that Lilith was probably misleading one of her friends.

"Benny." Lilith simply stated and continued to swing her bag around merrily. Perhaps Lilith was really interested in Chizuru if she was in such a good mood after a date with her. Wait…

"Where did Benny get money? He's a demon." Orihime asked Lilith. She was worried now. Bezanthume might have stolen the money and Orihime did not want any crimes on her conscience. Orihime was the one that let Bezanthume out of that orb and he was here to fulfill a contract they supposedly forged, so anything he did was her responsibility. At least that's the way Orihime understood it.

"I don't know. He's the one who pays our rent anyways. He gave me a couple of million this morning. I don't care where he gets it as long as I get a share. You can come and ask him if you want." Lilith said and kept on marching ahead. Did Lilith and Bezanthume live together? Orihime decided not to ask a question she already had an answer for. Lilith just said Bezanthume was paying _their _rent. What was Lilith for Bezanthume anyways? Having a demon and an angel get along was weird, so could it be that they were, or had been… lovers? Bezanthume didn't seem that fond of Lilith, so could it be that she was his ex-girlfriend?

"And here we are!" Lilith chirped and snapped Orihime out of her thoughts. Orihime glanced up to see a very familiar looking apartment building.

"But this is my apartment building…" Orihime said in a stunned voice. What was the meaning of this? Were they going to live with her? But Lilith just said that Bezanthume paid their rent.

"Yeah, we rented the empty apartment neighboring yours. Benny said something about it being more convenient to be close to you." Lilith said and walked in the courtyard and turned to the staircase on the left, instead of the one on the right and walked up the stairs. She walked up and opened the door on the left. Orihime followed her in and walked into a very barren looking apartment. That made sense if they just moved in.

"Where's Benny?" Orihime asked as Lilith was taking out her futon, while muttering about getting a decent bed as soon as possible.

"He's probably in his room sleeping. I am going to go to bed now. I didn't sleep at all last night while setting this entire thing up, so I trust you can go and ask him yourself. Good night!" Lilith yelled without waiting for Orihime's answer. They had separate rooms? Did the floor plan of these apartments differ so much for there to be room for separate rooms? Orihime looked around and walked through the kitchen and into the room which in Orihime's apartment was the room where she did her laundry. The floor plan was identical to her apartments. Except for the black wooden door where in Orihime's apartment the washing machine was.

The door's frames were lined with highly detailed and artistic runes that pulsated with ominous red light and gave the door a surreal feel. It felt like it didn't belong in this world. This must have been what Lilith meant by "Benny's room" it was definitely demonic. Orihime guessed that it was a doorway to a whole different reality than the one she was in, but the fact that Lilith had encouraged her to ask Bezanthume on her own meant that it shouldn't be dangerous for her to go there, right? Orihime reached her hand out for the handle on the door and gripped it tightly only after a moment of hesitation. She should stop being so indecisive and ditzy. She should get stronger and protect her friends instead of letting them protect her.

Orihime pulled on the handle on the door and was surprised at how lightly it opened. It looked like it was heavy, but the hinges must have been balanced perfectly to support the whole weight of the door.

Orihime looked inside and saw a shimmering image of a room dimly lighted with a single red orb of light that was either embedded in the wall, or was floating in the very center of the room. There was an object that looked like a bed on the left from the orb of light and something that looked like a desk and a chair against the wall on its right side. Orihime couldn't see the whole bed without stepping through the threshold. Orihime took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut before taking the step through the threshold.

There was a sensation akin to static electricity running on her skin and suddenly the air became scorching hot and there was a smell in the air she could not recognize. It was not an unpleasant smell, just foreign, like an oriental spice or something like that. This must be what Bezanthume's home smells like. Was she really in hell? Didn't Bezanthume say that he wasn't from hell? Orihime opened her eyes and looked around her with interest in her eyes.

The walls, ceiling and floor were made from something that looked like polished black marble and the red orb was really floating in the very center of the room. Both the desk and the bed were made out of some kind of black wood, like the door. Both were crafted with more detail than the door and Orihime wondered if Bezanthume was rich. There were circular indentions with detailed runes and symbols on the ceiling directly above the orb and on the floor directly under the orb, so Orihime thought that it must be a stationary decorative object. There was another door in the corner on the right side of the bed and Orihime had been unable to see it before coming into the room. The door seemed to be made out of something like steel and had many latches and glowing runes on it.

Orihime started to carefully walk towards the bed and saw that Bezanthume indeed was sprawled on it with his arms stretched out on his sides. The bed was the largest Orihime had ever seen, so it must have been made with his size in mind. As far as Orihime could see the cover were made of black silk with some kind of decorative symbol on them. Bezanthume had thrown most of his school uniform around the room, with only his white shirt on the post of the bed. Was he naked under those covers? Orihime blushed slightly but still kept on approaching the bed. He had already stolen a peek of her bathing, so if she were to see something it would only be fair, right.

Orihime took the last steps and was on the side of the bed and noticed that Bezanthume indeed was at least naked waist up. The black covers were covering him waist down. But instead of blushing from seeing Bezanthume's naked chest, all blood escaped from Orihime's and she felt numb. She knew that Bezanthume was a demon and it might be that he had aspects in his life that would seem wrong to her but… this was…

There was a girl that couldn't be more than twelve curled up on Bezanthume's bare chest. The girl had very long black hair that flowed on the other side of the bed and was scattered on Bezanthume's chest. The girl had big elfish ears that protruded from the thick black hair and there was a fang peeking out from her slightly agape mouth. The girl was sleeping on Bezanthume's chest with her head pressed on the nape of Bezanthume's neck and she had her hands around a black pillow almost as big as she was. The girl was small in frame and wearing only a translucent dark blue night gown that went down to her knees.

Orihime ran out of the room and the door closed after her slowly.

* * *

**Hello there! First of all: Lilith's theme song is "Miss Impossible" by Poets of the Fall, look it up and tell me if you agree.  
**

**Bezantume's theme song is "Animal I have become" by Three Days Grace. This might not be his final theme song, so let me know if you find a song that fits him better.**

**Review.  
**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


	15. Rezaliel

**Hi there! I know this took a while, but I hope you can forgive me enought to leave a review and say what you think about it. Well, nothing else to say for now...**

** Enjoy!  
**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve  
**

**Rezaliel**

Bezanthume opened his eyes and wondered what could have disturbed him out of his slumber. He was not even having one of those disturbing "dreams", so what could have it been? He raised his head and noticed the small girl sleeping on his chest. Had that woke him up? Somehow he had a feeling that the disturbance had not been anything physical. Perhaps something telepathic, maybe Inoue Orihime got scared by something? Bezanthume lowered his head back on the pillow and wondered if he should check up on her. He closed his eyes with that intention in mind, but only fell asleep again. He had had a very long night.

The girl on Bezanthume's chest was not actually asleep anymore. Bezanthume knew that without even glancing into her mind. She had been disturbed out of her sleep as well, but was staying on his chest, lulled back to sleep by the sound of his heartbeat and the warmth of his body. Really, she had not changed in the years he had been away. She was still such a child. He'll allow her to stay there until he would have had enough sleep himself. It had been a long time since they saw each other, so he could as well let her have this amount of intimacy.

"Who was that girl, Bezanthume?" The girl asked in a sleepy voice. Bezanthume had to think for a good while before he came to the conclusion that the "girl" could be no other than Inoue Orihime. She knew who Lilith was, so she wouldn't call her a girl, she would make up an insult. But what was Inoue Orihime doing in his room?

"**I'll tell you later, Rez. Just sleep now, okay?" **Bezanthume said and set a hand on her small shoulder, in part to help her sleep and also in part to stop her from sneaking out and hurting Inoue Orihime. He knew from experience that she could get violent. Lilith was still traumatized.

**Chizuru**

"I'm home, mom!" Chizuru practically sung out when she opened the door to her home. She spun on her heels as she stepped in and kicked the door shut with her foot in the process. She was in such a good mood because Lily had actually agreed to go on a date with her and it had been a huge success! Lily had not been as aggressive as she had been when they first met and Chizuru had been able to stay conscious all the way through the date thanks to that. Chizuru was kind of disappointed when Lily was not as aggressive this time around, but she had actually had fun with her, instead of feeling inferior and awestruck. It was an actual date, not a make out session.

"Ro-man-tic!" Chizuru sung to herself as she fluttered about the hallway and took her shoes off somewhere between the doorway to the kitchen and the front door. How they ended up neatly next to each other in the entrance is still a little mystery to her. She stepped inside the kitchen and was slightly surprised that her mother was not there. "Oh well, she must still be shopping or something…"

Chizuru hopped up the stairs and stormed into her own room. She threw her bag on the kotatsu in the center of the room and threw herself on the bed. She stared at the ceiling and thought about Lily for what seemed like a moment, but in reality she laid there for half an hour. She heard the door open and close and turned her head to the bag on the kotatsu, thinking that she _should_ do her homework… Weird, her mom hadn't yelled that she's home. That was usually the first thing she does when she knows that Chizuru's home. As an excuse to delay thinking about her homework Chizuru decided to go down and greet her mother.

"Mom, I have already had dinner, so you don't have to think of me tonight!" Chizuru yelled as she was running down the stairs, she felt so very alive right now. She stepped into the kitchen and saw her mother sitting at the dinner table with a glass of water and a bottle of description pain killers in front of her. If someone were to see their mother in this situation they would think that they were thinking of suicide or something, but Chizuru knew that her mother was just wondering about the right dosage. And there was another reason that Chizuru couldn't think that her mother was thinking of suicide; she was glowing.

"Mom, you're… glowing…" Chizuru said in a puzzled tone. Why did her mother look like that? It looked like she was very happy, like those women in those… Oh my god! Benjamin was sent to the nurse and then he didn't come back for three hours! What exactly did he do during those three hours?

"Thank you, honey. You look radiant too. Did something good happen at school? Did someone confess to you?" Honshou Chiyo asked in a cheery tone from her shocked daughter. Chizuru watched as her mother decided on taking three capsules out of the bottle and then flushed them down with the water. Did that Benjamin Copperwail really have the guts to come on to her mother? Judging by how he kissed Tatsuki, the answer was obvious.

"Mom… uhm…" Chizuru hesitated before asking her if she really had done it. How was she supposed to ask something like that? It was not normal for a daughter to be asking her mother if she did or did not have sex with one of her classmates! Well, no matter how weird, it didn't do you any good to avoid it. "Mom, did you get laid?"

"Wha- What makes you say that, honey?" Honshou Chiyo replied and averted her eyes. OH MY GOD! It was true! Chizuru knew that her mother was open with things concerning sexuality, heterosexuality that is, but this was just… immoral! The school nurse was not supposed to "service" the transfer students! Benjamin had been gone for three hours and Chizuru really wanted to keep the mental images from invading her mind, but she just couldn't help it. It was like she was trying to keep a tidal wave at bay with her bare hands.

"MOM! I can't believe you! You're the school nurse for god's sake! Isn't that the definition of unethical?" Chizuru screamed and banged her head on the wall to try and keep the graphic mental images at bay.

"Calm down, honey. What are you talking about?" Her mother asked, trying to deny it. Chizuru turned her eyes to meet with her mother's. She really did want to believe that her mother did not do it, but the evidence against that was overwhelming. Okay, I'll give her one more chance. This should make sure in one way or the other.

"Benjamin Copperwail." Chizuru said in a clear and stable voice. Her mother flinched and blushed at the mention of his name. She raised her right hand to her mouth and started to nervously play with her lip. Chizuru could not believe her mother was blushing like a school girl at the mere mention of his name. What the hell had he done to her? Hey, wait… According to Tatsuki's story Benjamin Copperwail despised rapists…

"Mom…" Chizuru tried to calm herself and sat down on the chair opposite to her mother. She would like to go up to her room and try to erase this information from her head, but she had one more question she needed to make. Her mother might be a little… open-minded when it came to sex, but she was a reasonable woman and if it really was forced, then she would have had Benjamin Copperwail locked up already, but considering Benjamin Copperwail's size and the somehow "evil" aura around him, it was possible that he would be able to intimidate her mother to staying quiet. Chizuru just had to know for sure.

"Yes, honey?" Honshou Chiyo asked in a rather cheery tone. Okay, now Chizuru was almost certain it wasn't forced, but she decided to go through with it to be sure. She was aware of the blush on her face and turned her eyes away from her mother before asking her the question. Chizuru just couldn't look her in the eye without losing her nerve.

"Was it… Did he ra–" She just couldn't say that word to her mother. "Was it forced? Did he force it on you?" Chizuru blushed even harder after she got her question out. This _definitely_ was not normal. Chizuru couldn't imagine any other girl her age having a same kind of discussion with their mother.

"Was it forced, you say… Well, he was pretty bold with his advances, but he didn't actually force me to do anything. He did do a couple of new things to me, though… Oh, and talk about endurance! I was exhausted after the first hour, but he –" Honshou Chiyo was rather open-minded when it came to sex and that was one of the things her daughter disliked in her, but an outsider would just think that they were very much alike.

"MOM! I _did not _need to know that!" Chizuru screamed and jumped up. She slammed her right palm on the table and started counting with the fingers on her left hand. "First of all: I am not interested in men! Second: Mothers are not supposed to tell things like that to their daughters!" Chizuru breathed heavily and felt the blush burning her cheeks. Why couldn't her mother be normal, for god's sakes!

"I'm going to bed! See you in the morning, mom!" Chizuru shout out and stormed up the stairs. Her mother understood the meaning behind her words and took a sip of the water she hadn't finished yet. "I hate you, please don't bother me until I choose to talk to you" was what Chizuru really meant with her words. Honshou Chiyo sighed and set the glass on the table and wondered if she should fill it with something with a little more punch.

"I should have known it would have ended like this… Well, it's not like I could have kept it a secret from her long. She's gone and inherited my smarts…" Honshou Chiyo said to herself and smiled a warm motherly smile. You could say a lot of things about Honshou Chiyo, but you would be dead wrong if you were to say that she didn't love her daughter. She just showed it differently than other mothers, maybe a little too differently if you asked the daughter in question.

**Soi Fong**

"What the hell is going on?" Soi Fong groaned in a desperate tone while pressing her forehead on the bark of a tree in Karakura Town's public park. She was squeezing her eyes shut to stop herself from seeing butterflies. Thank god that she only felt the uncontrollable urge to exclaim the presence of butterflies, but concerning her line of work it was very inconvenient. Shinigami used hell butterflies for communication, so her exclaiming "BUTTERFLY!" every time she sees one would be very inappropriate… not to say embarrassing.

"I cannot go back to Soul Society like this. I have to find the cause for this and then find a way to undo it…" Soi Fong said and turned around to observe the people in the park. It was rare, but there were some humans that were able to see shinigami. Luckily none of them were there to see her stressing over her sudden insanity. Only thing she could think of that could cause her to act in this way was some kind of foreign influence, meaning that it was _someone _who did this instead of _something. _The question was whowould be able to make the captain of the secret mobile corps act like this?

"Someone must have done something to me after that giant knocked me out… It actually might have been the same giant, since I'm not sure how long I was out and him hitting me seems like a too much of a coincidence now that I think about it…" Soi Fong pondered out loud and leaned onto the tree and stared at the sun filtered through the branches of the tree deep in thought. The top suspects would be that giant and the long haired blonde girl; since she was somehow unable to sense any reiatsu from them at all, but even though they were the most possible suspects, it was a fact she couldn't track them now that school was over.

"So maybe I should head back over to the school. The butterfly has probably left by now. There might be some clues…" Soi Fong pushed herself off of the tree and used shunpo to leap from rooftop to rooftop. If the giant had done something to her while she was unconscious then there had to be footprints under the tree she woke up under. There was no way someone of that size could move without leaving footprints. Soi Fong landed on the roof of the school and looked down to the tree she had woken up under. She did not see any butterflies. She sighed and jumped down to the ground.

"Okay, now I should just…" Great, now she was talking to herself. Soi Fong swore to wring the neck of the person who did this to her when she found him or her. It had to be either the giant or the blonde girl. Anyone else of interest in this town had more than usual spiritual power, but that was about it; the only ones that stood out where those two that didn't seem to have any at all. That was either because they were not alive, or they were concealing it. If they were able to conceal their spiritual power so completely, then twisting her mind like this just might have been possible. Whatever the case they were her only clue right now, so she had no other choice.

It didn't take her long to find marks indicating that someone at least as big as the giant man she had seen had indeed been there where her unconscious body had been lying. She could determine a person's weight and height from the distance between their footsteps and the depth of the indention their foot left. The distance didn't match up, but he must have been going slowly intentionally to not exhaust the shorter and lighter person with him, probably the blonde. What puzzled her about the footprints was that the indention indicated that the giant weighed more than she had originally estimated or he was carrying something heavy. She didn't find any indentions of something being set down around the tree, so what could that mean? Did he wear armor-plating under his clothes or something? These two seemed more and more suspicious by the minute.

Soi Fong followed the footprints and concluded that they had walked here and then both of them had sat down in front of her. The smaller footprints went right on the place she had woken up on while the larger ones only trailed away from the tree. Soi Fong followed these footprints and found a spot of grass where the blades of grass were pressed almost into the ground and the grass on the center of these strange pair of indentions were withering, like they were scorched. The footprints also suddenly disappeared and she couldn't find any in an area she estimated that the giant could jump, if he was a normal human. What the hell did this mean then? So he used something like shunpo to get away… or flew, she didn't know anything about these people and what kind of abilities they might have.

Soi Fong decided to think about that later, walked back to where she had woken up and started following the smaller pair of footprints. It looked like at least the blonde had walked away and Soi Fong was able to track them a little further from the school grounds, but tracking someone in an urban environment with no hint of reiatsu to sense was practically impossible. What hell was she supposed to do now? Soi Fong rested against a wall and gazed up at the sky with the foreign sense of relaxation in her mind. She had not allowed herself to feel relaxed for decades, so it must be a part of this mental manipulation. She saw a flutter in the corner of her eye and instinctively turned her eyes to it.

"A BUTTERFLY!" Soi Fong exclaimed while pointing at the pretty insect. As soon as she had shouted that out she turned around and squeezed her eyes shut. Damn it, there seemed to be no way for her to stop herself from doing that when seeing any kind of butterfly.

"Oh, I'm going to do a whole lot more than break their neck…" Soi Fong hissed between clenched teeth.

**Tatsuki**

Tatsuki leaned back from her homework and raised her left hand to level with her eyes. In the morning she had felt like she could punch through a brick wall. Now that feeling was gone, but there was a strange numbness in her whole body. When she moved her body she didn't feel any strain in her muscles even though they were flexing. It wasn't like she felt dislocated from her own body, she could feel hot, cold and touch just fine, maybe a little better actually, but now she had a feeling that she had to hold back her movements not to break anything. She knew how crazy that was and knew that she could not punch through a brick wall without shattering her fist in the process, but… she could probably lift a car.

God, how long was that trace amount of whatever drug that Benjamin Copperwail had been on was going to stay in her system? She was probably going to get herself hurt if she keeps having these delusions much longer. Tatsuki groaned in despair and ran her hands through her hair in frustration. What possible reason could he have to kissing her like that? There was no way that he could have known about the feeling of cold that was seeping into her soul, even though that feeling had disappeared after that kiss.

Tatsuki had been wondering if she should tell her parents about some of these things. What Benjamin did could be seen as sexual assault and her father definitely would see it just as that and have him arrested for attempted rape or something… Her father would over-react as usual and her mother would forbid her from leaving the house, even if she were to leave out the part about the attempted rape that Benjamin stopped, those were the reasons she was not so willing to tell any of this to her parents. Why where her parents so overprotective? She originally started karate to prove that she _could _take care of herself.

Of course she really started going to the dojo because her parents took her there, but she really got into martial arts to show her parents. It was not like she was forcing herself into it, not in a million years. She loved pushing herself to the limit and throwing people around and beating things. In other words; she liked the sport and the practical application of it. She competed in the national tournament because she liked the challenge, but she couldn't deny that she hoped to prove to her parents once and for all by winning that tournament. She came in second and by her parent's reactions she wasn't so sure if they would have got it even if she did win. Tatsuki started spinning her pencil over her knuckles and allowed her mind to wander away from mathematics.

"If he's a foreigner, then where's he staying?" Tatsuki asked herself. No matter how much she denied it, her thoughts were revolving around Benjamin Copperwail. It was a good question, though. Benjamin Copperwail was fluent in Japanese, but there was no way you could mistake him, or his cousin for that matter, for a native. How long had he been living in Japan to learn the language so perfectly? He seemed to have a knack for learning languages if he was telling the truth about the list of languages he could speak. Did his parents live here in Karakura town? Did he live on his own or with his cousin? Why his body temperature was so much higher than normal? Why was he able to shake off a 15 meter fall? What had he been doing for those three hours he was supposed to be in the nurse's office?

"Gah! The guy pisses me off! He's one big question mark!" Tatsuki groaned and ruffled her hair in frustration. It would be natural for her to know more about the person who got so intimate with her, but she barely knew anything beside his name. Damn that guy and his arrogance towards other people's emotions! Why the hell did he have to go and do that? It couldn't be that he thought she was that attractive. Even if that was the case, it wasn't like Tatsuki had given him any signs what so ever that she'd be okay with it… Could it really be that he did it to stop that cold that was spreading in her? It did seem like it was because of him, so was he just cleaning up a mess he made? What exactly was he? He sure as hell didn't seem like your typical student.

"This is going to bother me… I should just ask him, I at least have that right after all he's done… Yes, I'll do that tomorrow." Tatsuki mumbled to herself and balanced her pencil on the tip of her index finger without taking any notice of the impossibility of what she was doing. She then flexed her index finger and caught the pencil in her hand as it was spinning in the air and continued on doing her math homework. The problems seemed a whole lot easier than before, but it was still a dull subject for her. She would rather be… doing right about anything else.

**Orihime**

Orihime was watching an anime that she had as a VHS. She knew the plot inside and out, so she wasn't actually even paying attention to the screen. The show had been her favorite when she was younger, when her brother was still alive. He had bought the collection for her as a Christmas present. She didn't know if she felt like watching it because she missed her brother, or if she just wanted to escape from reality.

The reality was that Bezanthume was sleeping in his own apartment one wall and a dimensional rift away with a 12-year old girl on him. Orihime had known that he was a full-blooded demon through and through from the beginning, but it had taken something like that for that fact to actually sink in. He had never hid his true identity from her or even acted in a way that would give her a reason to doubt what he was. He was a demon, a bloodthirsty, sadistic demon that enjoyed carnage. He might look and act like a human, but Orihime knew his true form; a red and black smoke that only took the form of an eight foot tall man for its convenience. There is not an inch of humanity in him; it is only natural for him to do things like that.

Actually when she thought about it Bezanthume had said something after he had bitten Yuzu; something about that he had done something that was despicable by her standards, not his. What exactly was okay with him and what wasn't? He seemed to despise rape, from his reaction to Orihime accusing him of the act and him saving Tatsuki proved that. Was that it? Did he just object to forced… forced… sex… was it okay for him if it was not forced? Didn't he have a conscience?

What about the girl? Where did she come from? Did Bezanthume kidnap her? If his conscience only objected if the victim fought back, then would it be okay for him if that girl was paralyzed with fear? He seemed to lack the ability to understand other people's feelings, so could it be that he really… No, that couldn't be right. Bezanthume had to be able to know the difference and that girl didn't look like someone he just snatched off the street. She had fangs and pointy ears and she seemed to be very comfortable with lying on Bezanthume's chest like that. Could it be that… it was an arranged marriage?

Oh, that had to be it! Their families must have set it up and now Bezanthume was pressured into sharing a bed with her by her two evil aunts and when the girl climbed up on his chest Bezanthume didn't have the heart to throw her off. Or maybe Bezanthume was just worried that he might crush her and placed her on his chest to prevent that. It might just be that the girl had snuck on top of him when Bezanthume was sleeping for comfort from the abusive treatment her evil aunts put her through.

But if it was an arranged marriage, then had they already… sealed the deal. Orihime imagined Bezanthume and that small girl with flowing black hair and with her extraordinary imagination running rampart it made her blush deeply. She imagined the moaning and the girl biting Bezanthume's neck from the pain when he held her petite body in his arms and… Orihime's mind overheated at this point and she felt dizzy from all the blood packing into her head. Her hairpins also reacted to her exited state and six fairies popped out around her head.

"Woman, I never knew you had such a dirty mind." Tsubaki said an inch away from Orihime's face.

"Relax, Tsubaki. It's normal for a girl her age to have that kind of thoughts. Our little princess is growing up." Lily said with a smile on her face, her and Ayame where whispering about something together and Shun'ou was blushing and looking away. Were her fairies able to hear every thought in her head?

"Were… Were you able to see that?" Orihime asked the fairies floating around her head. They either looked away embarrassed (Shun'ou, Tsubaki, Hinagiku and Baigon) or gave her an "I know what you did" look with an ever widening smirk on their faces (Lily and Ayame).

"Oh yes, we totally were. Down to the smallest little detail. Your imagination is impressive, Orihime-san." Ayame said and then giggled with a hand covering her mouth when Orihime turned beet red. Lily was floating behind Ayame and grinning widely, but not quite laughing. Shun'ou was clearly the one most bothered about what he had seen, since he was the one to try and move the conversation along.

"What are you watching, Orihime-san? Even though we live in your head we don't have your memories." Shun'ou said and ignored the murderous looks Lily and Ayame were giving him for interrupting their fun. Orihime was more than happy to divert the fairies attention from her vivid imagination.

"A show called Slayers. It was one of my favorite shows when I was younger and my brother bought the first season collection for me… before he died…" Orihime's posture slumped and the fairies exchanged accusing and guilty looks. Lily was the one to break the awkward silence.

"Who wants popcorn? Do you have any, Orihime-san? We could watch the anime together, popcorn just makes it better." Lily asked with her arms spread out and glanced at her fellow fairies for confirmation. They all nodded and agreed, eager to lift Orihime's mood.

"Yeah, I think I have some in the kitchen. I'll go prepare it…" Orihime got up from the floor, but was stopped from going to the kitchen by the collective push of her fairies.

"You don't have to burden yourself, Orihime-sama! We'll make the popcorn and bring it to you." Ayame and Shun'ou said at the same time and with the same kind of apologetic smile on their faces. They were really expressing her suppressed emotions back in Hueco Mundo as it seemed. Now they were actually nice to her. Orihime couldn't stop a small smile from forming on her lips as she sat back down on the floor.

"Okay, suit yourselves. The popcorn is in the top shelf in the fridge." Orihime said and the fairies all shot into the kitchen. She watched as another episode came to a close and pretty much everything just exploded. That had been, and still is, her second favorite part of the series. Her favorite part was when Lina kicked ass, and that happened quite often. The red-haired sorceress had been her idol when growing up and she always wanted to be just like her.

If she hadn't been over the series by the time her chest started growing, then Orihime probably would have cried. One of Lina's key charactherics was her flat chestedness… How lucky for her that the death of her brother made her forget about Slayers altogether.

"Uh, woman… Why do you keep your popcorn in the fridge?" Tsubaki asked as he floated a respectable distance away from her face. It was a refreshing change.

"So that it doesn't grow into corn of course." Orihime stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Tsubaki stared at her blankly for a moment and wondered how much of Orihime's mind did they occupy exactly. Both Tsubaki and Orihime turned towards the kitchen when they heard the sounds of rest of the fairies. It was almost impossible to tell their high-pitched voices apart.

"_How do we use this?"_

"_Do we open it?"_

"_No, I think we put it in like that…"_

"_Would you shut the fridge already, Orihime-sama isn't made out of money!"_

"_Okay, okay, you don't have to be such a royal bi –"_

"_Finish that sentence and you won't see tomorrow!"_

"_Shut up, she can hear you two."_

"I think I should go back in there before they break something…" Tsubaki said and waved a quick goodbye to Orihime before heading for the kitchen. Orihime listened to her fairies bickering about how to use the microwave and couldn't stop smiling.

**Bezanthume**

Bezanthume woke up a second time and now he was sure that he had actually slept for a couple of hours instead of being awakened by one or another of the females in his life right now. The girl was still on his chest and was looking rather content there. Bezanthume knew that demons didn't usually dream and that his latter experiences with something similar was just because his subconscious was pestering him about Lilith's predicament, but now it looked like Rezaliel was having a rather happy dream. He was almost persuaded in just resting his head back down and falling asleep to avoid disturbing her dreams, but something was bothering him. He should get out of this room to make sure.

Bezanthume clenched and unclenched his fists a couple of times to bring feeling back into them before sliding his hands under the girl on his chest. He reconsidered when realizing that the human body he was using would not bend enough to allow such a feat and then decided to simply slide her off his chest by turning his body and only support her body with his hands. Rezaliel shifted in her sleep, but only moved the pillow she was squeezing under her head for comfort instead of waking up. Bezanthume sighed out of relief and stepped out of the bed. The bed was well made, so Rezaliel didn't feel it when his considerable weight vacated the bed.

He looked for the parts of his school uniform and put them on as he found them. When he was buttoning his shirt his eyes fell upon his black coat. Bezanthume went over what he was intending to do the next day and then grabbed it and stepped through another door lined with runes into another room.

The room was considerably bigger than the one he was sleeping in and the walls were lined with different kinds of weapons. Some of them were too large and heavy to be placed on the walls so they were either suspended near the ceiling or just were on decorative pedestals on the floor. Bezanthume felt that this room was very familiar to him and he knew how to use almost every weapon there, but any personal memories of him actually being there were too unclear and hazy to be even called memories.

He scanned the walls of the room until his eyes fell upon a pair of what appeared to be wrist guards made out of some black metal with red decorations inscribed on them. He started walking towards them without actually knowing why they were so important and why was it so important for him to take them before anything else. He took one of them into his hands and noticed it was lighter than it looked at first glance. From the knowledge he had from the modern world he would say they were made out of carbon fiber, but he also knew that it wasn't the case. They were made out of something that resemble thick leather, but was hard enough to block a swing from a normal sword.

Bezanthume kept inspecting the wrist guard and opened the five locks that kept it closed and noticed the runes inscribed on the inside. They didn't look like they were his own, but he saw his own name written on the very center of the artistic compilation of runes and the lines that linked them together. He fit the wrist guard on his right arm and closed the locks one by one. He felt how it warmed up to his body temperature and twisted and contorted to become like an extra layer of his skin. The wrist guard covered most of his forearm and the back of his palm.

It felt good. It felt like he knew it and that it knew him. Definitely tailor made, and by a skilled one at that. He didn't remember it, but he either just knew or the piece of armor told him that he could make it change it into any shape if he wanted to, for an appropriate amount of his power of course. Bezanthume did not hesitate on locking the other one of the pair on his left arm. He would think of an appropriate form for them later, now he had to arm himself.

Bezanthume turned around and was about to walk to a wall decorated solely with skillfully crafted swords, daggers, axes, scythes, knives and spears when a sudden memory hit him like a sledgehammer. He had to conclude that the wrist guards were the trigger.

"**Ah, I see how it is…" **Bezanthume said with a slight smirk on his face when he raised his hands to both of his sides with both palms up and started to let his power flow into the wrist guards and watched with moderate interest as what had looked like strains or imperfections in the leather/metal surface of the wrist guards start glowing in red and then growing out to cover one another like a abstract type of scale-like plate armor with the scales slightly jutting out towards his elbow. The part covering the back of his palm started growing over his fingers and in less than a minute his arms and forearms were covered in a pair of skillfully crafted gauntlets. The fact that it didn't surprise him probably meant that he had used them before.

Upon closer inspection Bezanthume liked them even more than he originally thought. The scales that made the armor plating on his fingers and forearms were jutting out slightly and were as sharp enough to cut anything that was not made out of something as hard. The extending joint scales on his fingers didn't hinder their movement and he noticed that there were four separate spikes on the knuckles that slid out as he made a fist. These gauntlets were not made solely for the purpose of protecting his hands from attacks; they were made for ripping his enemies to pieces.

Bezanthume felt a smooth surface covering both of his palms and it felt different to the almost unnoticeable texture of the gauntlets, so he brought his left palm closer to his face and saw a spiraling formation of these scale armor plates retreating from the very center of his palm and exposing a round obsidian stone resting on his palm. It looked like an eye or a lens and probably acted like one It seemed like these gauntlets made it easier for him to control and direct his power. The obsidian stone was probably partly for gathering the power to be used and then for magnifying and directing it. He didn't need them, since he had trained himself to control his power with great accuracy, but these gauntlets could come in handy just as a excuse for his superhuman strength and while he instinctively parried a blade with his arm.

They also had another function inside this armory. Bezanthume raised his palms towards the wall with various weapons and concentrated on directing his power through the obsidian stone and then to the sharp tips of the gauntlets' fingers. The runes on the blades and hilts of the swords and other bladed weapons of war on the wall started to glow in a bright red and shake as a response to Bezanthume directing power into the gauntlets.

NowBezanthume just had to decide what to take and what to leave here. What could he use against opponents that used mostly swords?

About a half an hour later Bezanthume stepped back into his bedroom and was pleased to see that Rezaliel was still sleeping. He set his coat on one of the black wooden pillars of his bed, since he probably wouldn't need it in the near future and wearing it would raise suspicion. Bezanthume stepped out into the reality that Inoue Orihime called home and he shivered from the cold as he had to get used to how could this world was in comparison. He did not like cold, not at all; he had fire in his veins. He let the door close on its own weight behind him as he walked into what would be the common room if he really used this apartment, right now it was practically Lilith's to use.

Speaking of Lilith, she was sleeping soundly on a futon in the center of the room, which was the spot that got the most sun. Bezanthume sat down next to her and watched her sleep calmly as he tried to remember something more about this extraordinary angel. He was aware of the nature of the relationship they had been in and now that she watched her sleep with her golden hair a glorified mess around her head he could see why he would be interested in her. The real question was how in her god's name Lilith had got into that kind of affair with him, a full-blooded demon. He was aware of her special personality, but he also had a vague feeling that she had not always been like that. He had only one faint memory to support this memory, but it was enough to convince him.

In this memory Bezanthume was either toying or fighting with Lilith, but it didn't matter what they were doing. They still ended up with Bezanthume pinning Lilith's considerably smaller and frailer body against a wall and savoring the mix of fear, excitement, anger and awe. He remembered his left hand grabbing her by the long golden hair and forcing her to expose her neck as the right was helping to keep her hands up above her head. He remembered how Lilith's body had trembled as his breath touched the sensitive skin of her neck. He had bit down and drunk his full without a second thought and enjoyed hearing her moan and squeal out of pain and the overflowing excitement inside her. After he had his full he raised his mouth from the wound and let the blood gushing from the already closing wound stain the front of her pure white robes.

He had grabbed her chin and brought her lips close to his lips, which were still crimson red from Lilith's blood, as a way to taunt her from losing to him and allowing him to drink her blood, but Lilith ended up being the one to surprise him. When Bezanthume pressed his blood soaked lips on Lilith's and gave her soft lips a teasing lick Lilith surprised him by opening her mouth and pressing her lips tightly against his and making what was supposed to be a gesture to humiliate her into a deep and passionate kiss. Bezanthume had been too shocked to think that there could have been an ulterior motive behind it and he wasn't complaining.

The last thing he remembered was Lilith coming back to her senses as her wound closed and pushing herself away from him. Bezanthume watched the sleeping angel in front of him and he could imagine her as that pure and innocent angel, but what exactly was that changed her from that into the nymphomaniac she was now? Could it have been him? If he really was able to change an angel so much then he had to give himself a pat on the back. Well, Lilith might have been a little special to begin with, but it was still quite a feat.

Bezanthume decided to go check on Inoue Orihime and stood up from next to Lilith and walked through the walls of his apartment and then materialized outside long enough to jump to the ceiling above Inoue Orihime's apartment and then he just simply slid through the roof and landed in the common room of Inoue Orihime's apartment. He materialized right behind Inoue Orihime and heard the floor boards creak a little under his weight. Inoue Orihime was fast asleep as her fairies used her as a place to sit and watch an animation on the Television. It didn't seem like they had noticed him standing behind them.

"Lina is so in love with this Gourry…" The female fairy wearing spandex said as a tall blonde sword man wreaked havoc on the screen. The one wearing something like a kimono agreed. These two were sitting on Inoue Orihime's head and sharing the same piece of popcorn, breaking pieces out of it and munching on them. The bowl of popcorn was placed on the table; right next to Inoue Orihime's sleeping head.

"What makes you say that? They obviously hate each other." The one with a pompous attitude asked while he was leaning on the top of Inoue Orihime's head with a couple of pieces of popcorn next to him. As far as Bezanthume remembered this one was the only one with any kind of offensive power, so maybe that's where the attitude came from.

"Hate and love often go hand in hand…" The one named Shun'ou said with a voice that heavily implied that he was talking out of personal experience. The one wearing a kimono, Ayame, that was her name, gave Shun'ou a look. Shun'ou was sitting on Inoue Orihime's left shoulder and was holding an almost finished piece of popcorn.

"**What are you watching?" **Bezanthume asked the six fairies spread out on and around Inoue Orihime.

"An anime called Slayers; it was Orihime-sama's favorite a long time ago." The female one wearing spandex answered. Bezanthume wondered what exactly anime was, but then just shrugged it off as a contorted version of "animation".

"**Okay, what's it about?" **Bezanthume asked as sitting down on the right side of Inoue Orihime and grabbing a handful of popcorn from the plastic bowl.

"It's about a sorceress named Lina and – Hey, what the hell are you doing here? Get away from Orihime-sama!" Ayame screamed as she realized who exactly it was she was talking to. The other fairies also sprung into action, but didn't start attacking him as Bezanthume just threw another piece of popcorn into his mouth.

"**You have nothing to worry about. I have no intention to hurt Inoue Orihime. I am in a contract with her, remember?" **Bezanthume asked the fairies and turned his head back to the television. The popcorn was surprisingly good. It didn't taste like anything, but it was nice to munch on. **"So, could you tell me the gist of the story?"**

"Okay…" Shun'ou said after a pause and the fairies slowly floated back to their seats.

**Orihime**

"DRAGON SLAVE!" A familiar voice shouted and waked Orihime from her sleep. It seemed like she had fallen asleep while watching Slayers with her fairies. She should call them back and go to bed already.

"**Come on, that's impossible. There is no way that someone would give that much power without an equivalent sacrifice and I find it hard to believe that this Lina has that much power herself." **Bezanthume's voice rumbled somewhere very near to her. Orihime straightened her back without any warning and this caused Tsubaki to hit his head on the table, Ayame to be dropped on the floor and left Lily hanging on Orihime's hair.

"Be – Bezanthume! What are you doing here?" Orihime asked with her heart racing. She tried to stand up and step away from Bezanthume, but her legs had fallen asleep from her sleeping in a sitting position and instead she was sent towards the floor face first. She would have hit her face on the floor if Bezanthume hadn't reached out a hand pulled her back. This caused Orihime to stumble in the opposite direction and this happened to be Bezanthume's lap.

"Hey, what exactly are you doing to Orihime-sama?" Lily shouted while flying from the top of her head right in front of Bezanthume's face. Bezanthume blew her away like he was blowing out a candle and put the rest of the popcorn he had on his hand in his mouth.

"**I stopped her from hurting herself. I was trying to make her stand on her own feet, but it seems like her legs can't carry her, so she stumbled into my lap. Did your legs fall asleep or something, princess?" **Bezanthume asked and made eye-contact with Orihime for the first time. Orihime felt a blush burning her cheeks. She just nodded her head before turning her eyes away.

"**So, you're legs are asleep. Would you like me to help you with the tingling? I know it can be maddening…" **Bezanthume said with a hint of a smirk on his face when he ran his palm down the side of her leg. It did help with the tingling, but it wasn't gone, so he would probably have to do it over and over again… That would be a little too much for Orihime's mind to take. She jumped up from Bezanthume's laps and stood in the doorway to the kitchen with her heart pounding and breathing heavily. Why did he have to do this to her? Did he really find teasing her so amusing?

"**Yes. Yes, I do." **Bezanthume simply stated while keeping his eyes on the TV. Orihime was about to say something back to him, when she heard a single knock from her door and a muffled sound of someone talking. She was about to walk to the door and answer it when suddenly the door swung open violently with the door frame flying in the air in a thousand pieces. Orihime was knocked back from surprise and retreated back from whatever will come through the door.

What walked through the destroyed door was a sleepy looking girl with long black hair wearing only a dark blue nightgown. She had her eyes closed and her step was wobbling, so it looked like she was sleepwalking. Orihime watched as the girl made her way to Bezanthume and then collapsed on his right shoulder with her left hand around his neck and her right just lying limply over his shoulder.

The girl said something in a foreign language with a rather normal voice. This girl didn't look exactly human with her elfish ears and fangs in her mouth, so Orihime had excepted her to sound different like Bezanthume did. She actually sounded just like a twelve-year old girl.

"**Go put some clothes on, Rezaliel." **Bezanthume answered the girl when glancing at her hanging on his shoulder. So, the girl's name was Rezaliel. Said girl answered something in a sleepy voice and Bezanthume answered in the same language in an irritated and commanding tone. The girl got up from Bezanthume's shoulder and then walked away with her eyes only half opened. Orihime noticed that the girl had glowing eyes, just like Bezanthume. She thought that she saw a violet glow from between her eyelids, but she wasn't that sure. It could have been blue as well.

"Who… Who was that, Bezanthume?" Orihime asked in a shaky voice. She had been surprised too many times in the last five minutes. Bezanthume glanced at her and the wooden shrapnel that used to be her doorframe and then turned back to watching Slayers.

"**I'll fix the door in a minute. I apologize for my sister's short temper." **Bezanthume simply stated.

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**That's it for now. The next chapter will most probably be a Hellsing omake. The readers that don't know what I'm talking about should educate themselves post haste on the awesomeness that is Hellsing. Yes, it's a manga and anime. but if you want to watch the anime then search for "Ultimate Hellsing" and you'll get the better one.**

** Crazy Laughter  
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	16. Hellsing Omake

**Hi there! I am uploading another chapter this fast because I was trying to get it posted on the birthday of Flower Miko, but it seems like I am a couple of hours too late. Well, anyways, Happy birthday, Flower Miko and enjoy the new installment!**

**The rest of you: Leave a review and say happy birthday to Flower Miko if you can!**

**Oh, and thanks to a reviewer signed X elemental for leaving a review, since I couldn't thank him/her personally I'm doing it through here.  
**

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**Chapter Thirteen**

**Hellsing Omake**

Victoria Ceras didn't have any reason to complain when she was offered another life after her whole village was destroyed by a vampire and then put to rest by the vampire she called "Master" these days. Sure, it might be the fact that she was what he called a "servant vampire", but she didn't dislike Alucard. He did have his good sides, though he rarely showed them. So, it is settled that Victoria Ceras did not dislike the man that turned her into an inhuman monster, but… The master of her master expected way too much from her.

How in god's name was she supposed to neutralize a whole town full of ghouls when her ammo supply ran out after the first 300? Sure, Alucard could manage his own share just fine, but Alucard was Alucard. He could probably take on the whole military power of the United States of A and laugh while slaughtering their army, but to expect the same from her?

"This is impossible!" Victoria screamed as she was running from a horde of ghouls. "Since when did Ghouls start running? KYAA!" A ghoul suddenly jumped out of a window of a building she was running past and landed on her. She nearly lost her balance, but she instinctively grabbed the ghoul by the head and slammed it to the ground. Victoria heard how the ghoul's head cracked open and felt the gray matter covering her glove. She felt like she was going to be sick, but the unverbal growl of the ghouls still chasing her gave her the motivation to keep running.

Sure, she knew she could handle them even without firearms, she had done it before. The problem was that, unlike Alucard, she did not enjoy it. She didn't like what she became when she went on berserk like she had in the Hellsing manor as it was attacked. She felt so very inhuman that it was sickening. She knew she would have to come to terms with the fact she wasn't human, but she hoped to delay that moment as much as possible.

Victoria noticed that she was running out of the limits of the town, since there was a forest starting at the end of the street she was running on. Hopefully the trees would help her lose the ghouls, since even though they had learned how to run they were still as clumsy. Victoria skidded to a halt and looked back at how the ghouls would be able to clear the trees when they were so tightly grouped together. The ghouls fell and were trampled just as she predicted, but there were still a dozen or so that stayed on their feet and more were coming the whole time.

Victoria decided to run like the wind. She was able to see in the dark like the sun was still up, but still the forest had a lot of stuff to stumble on and she probably stumbled on about a half of them. She bounced from tree to tree and spun around like crazy. She lost whatever sense of direction she had and only managed to go to the direction without ghouls. After a while she noticed that she had nothing to stand on and that the wind was blowing her hair up above her head. In other words: she was falling down from a cliff.

She was only able to open her mouth to scream before the impact forced the air out of her lungs. She rolled off of something uncomfortably pointy that she fell on and rubbed her sore buttocks. She tried to blink the tear out of her eyes. Even though she was an undead monster falling from a cliff still hurt like hell. Her vision was starting to clear and she noticed that the uncomfortable thing she had fell on was an old man with a beard almost as big as him holding a large leather skinned book against his chest. The look on his face showed extreme surprise. His neck was in a strange angle.

"Oh my god: I killed a man with my butt!" Victoria exclaimed and skidded away from the body. This was the first time she had killed a man… well, not really, but the one's she had killed were already dead, so does it count? Oh, she still hadn't checked if the guy was a vampire. Victoria looked at the man lying on the ground and took notice of the huge beard and the almost skeletal body. Yep, this man was not a vampire, besides vampires couldn't have died from her falling on them, they would have dodged. She could practically hear Alucard laughing at her…

Wait, she actually heard laughter. She looked at the place fell in from the cliff. It was an even rock platform and right next to the old man Victoria's ample assets had killed was a circle with pentagrams and complex symbols written on it. It kind of looked like the mark Alucard had on his glove. The symbols were all lined into a spiral that all seemed to flow into the center of the circle. Victoria heard laughter again and now noticed how the symbols flashed red. The laughter faded away almost to nothing before the symbols pulsed again. Now the laughter was back even louder and Victoria noticed how a small light shone from the very centre of the circle. The laughter was coming from there without a doubt. The hole was slightly too narrow for a tennis ball to fit in it, but a bright crimson light shone out of it. The symbols surrounding the hole suddenly started to shine in a bright crimson and red and black smoke exploded out of the hole.

The black and red smoke shot up about 12 feet before starting to swirl like a small typhoon and starting to get thicker and thicker while taking shape. The smoke swirled aggressively and Victoria tried to crawl away from it. She didn't have a good feeling about this. She was about to turn around and run when two crimson lights pinned her in place. Eyes, those were eyes, she just knew it. Whatever this thing was, that old man with the book was summoning it and now it was here, staring at her with bright red eyes. The smoke had stopped swirling like a typhoon and now it was shifting and turning inside the frame of a man at least as tall as Alucard. Those two red lights stopped her body from moving completely.

"**I saw that, thank you for killing that bastard, but the way you did it was just priceless." **The man standing in front of her said in a rumbling voice. The voice snapped her out of her paralyze and she noticed other things about the man in front of her. The man was at least six and a half feet tall and had dark red hair. The man was wearing a high collared leather jacket with straps and belts on the arms and around the body. The jacket was tight fitting even without the belts tightened and Victoria could see that the man was lean in frame and looked kind of lanky, but his arms were muscled and his shoulders broad. Victoria could almost see the muscles in his body straining through his jacket.

"Wh- who are you? What are you?" Victoria asked while trying to get some authority into her voice, but she failed miserably and when she saw the amusement in the man's eyes she felt like blushing. She noticed that the man was wearing pants that looked like black jeans. She also noticed the various obsidian daggers that he wore on two belts that were hanging loosely on both sides of his waist. His shoes looked like they were made from leather, but the scales looked too thick to be made from crocodiles or snakes, the scales shone red in the light of the man's eyes. She noticed all this for the first time when the man took a step towards her.

Victoria felt like running, but again she was stopped by the man's eyes, but this time it wasn't because of fear, not really. What she saw in those eyes was calculative amusement telling her that if she did run; he would catch her and if she did attack; he would win. Victoria stood there and stared into the man's red eyes as he took step after step until he was standing right in front of her, towering over her. He raised his left hand to unbuckle the straps keeping his collar up to cover his mouth and Victoria noticed that he had black claws in place of fingernails. He placed his left hand on her left cheek and bent down until his forehead was practically touching hers.

"**I'm a demon, babe…" **The man said in his rumbling voice and a wide smirk revealed his fangs. Again, his voice was what snapped Victoria out of the spell of his eyes and she stepped back from the man with her cheeks burning from embarrassment. "**But what exactly are you? You are colder than a human." **The man asked as he straightened back into his full length. He swept his hair back with one hand and rested the other on his hip. His hair was rather long and there were two long bangs framing his face and the rest of his hair was cut a shorter and it was pointing out like it was electrically charged. The two belts that were hanging low on his thighs seemed to be held in place by an ivory belt buckle that was shaped like a skull with fangs.

"I am a vampire. My Name is Victoria Ceras… What is yours?" Victoria asked and wondered why none of the ghouls had followed her. Maybe they sensed this man and stayed away, but Victoria didn't think that ghouls were perceptive enough to do that. They should have caught up to her by now.

"**Ah, a vampire, it's my first time seeing one of your kind. It would explain why you're cold and those things up there." **The man said and pointed a finger up the cliff Victoria had fell down from. She turned her attention to the direction where the man was pointing and saw a ghoul wearing a police uniform falling down like she had. She flinched back and closed her eyes to be spared from seeing the ghoul splatter on the ground, but all she heard was a loud _"Tzaa-rk!" _soundand felt a scorching hot gust of wind blow her hair back. She opened her eyes and saw a jet-black scorch mark on the cliff were the ghoul had been when she closed her eyes.

"**Disgusting abominations… Mind if I kill them all?" **The man asked and his hands were engulfed in fire before Victoria could say anything. It was obviously a rhetorical question. He brought his hands together, so that the tips of his fingers were touching each other and then the flames suddenly disappeared. Victoria took a step closer out of sheer curiosity on what he was doing. She noticed a small light between his palms and as crazy as it might sound; it resembled a miniature sun. The man closed his eyes and started to chant words that caused Victoria's temples to pulse and her vision to blur. After thirty seconds she had trouble staying on her feet. She couldn't even ask him to stop; she was using all of her remaining willpower to stay conscious.

"**Gre-zackt!" **The man shouted out and the light between his palms shot out with a high-pitched whistle and for a moment it looked like a star in the cloudy sky. Then the whistle it made while rising up turned into an unearthly howl and dozens of red arcs of lighting shot out into clouds above and arched out inside the clouds.

"**Okay, time to get some distance between us and those things, Victoria Ceras." **The man rumbled as Victoria was still staring at the light in the sky. It had just started to turn from phosphorous white into a deep red color. Victoria suddenly felt the man's arms on her lower back and under her knees. She was able to open her mouth to protest when the man crouched down, but she was unable to get a word out of her mouth as they were both launched high up into the sky as he flexed his legs.

Victoria could only watch with awe as the clouds above the small light started to twist and turn until there was a humongous funnel going into the small red light. The small red light's howl stopped and all that Victoria could hear was a low hum that shook the air. The small red light had started to grow into a crimson orb hanging in the sky as the clouds streamed into it. The orb of light grew and grew larger, until it was at least ten meters in diameter. Victoria was amazed enough to forget that the man who claimed to be a demon was still holding her bridal style, but when he extended the hand on her back towards the orb of light with his palm up and the tips of the black claws glowing with similar light she became painfully aware of that fact.

"Hey, let me down…" Victoria happened to glance down and noticed that they still were high up in the air. Why hadn't they landed yet? Victoria turned his head towards the man and noticed something she had not noticed before now. The man had huge black and red wings growing out of his back and they were holding the two of them up by lazily flexing up and down while the red lines pulsed. The man was not even sparing him a glance, since his whole attention was on the orb of light he was reaching out towards. He started to bring the tips of his claws together slowly and the orb shrunk accordingly in the sky. When the tips of his claws were touching, the orb in the sky was an intense red light that made the shadows the trees and the ruined city left look like pools of blood. Victoria noticed the man's lips turn into a smirk just before he spread his fingers apart again. The orb of light in the sky immediately exploded into hundreds of smaller and significantly dimmer orbs of light that raced across the sky and then spread out over the town and the woods surrounding it.

It was absolutely beautiful. The smaller orbs shone a bright, yet soft light that resembled sunlight and the ruined town and the woods around it looked like they were bathed in sunlight. Victoria actually felt the light on her skin as a warm feeling. Now that she was a vampire sunlight was very uncomfortable for her, but the light coming from those orbs reminded her what it felt like to bathe in the sun in a warm summer day. The man was still holding her bridal style in his arms, but no matter how embarrassing it was Victoria didn't complain because she didn't want to fall. He flicked his wrist sharply and Victoria could see something like the metal strings Walter used whipping in the air for a second. He turned his face towards hers and moved his hand back to supporting her legs.

"**Enjoy the show, Victoria Ceras." **The man said with a wide smirk on his face. Victoria didn't notice it though, because she was too busy watching the orbs of light. They started floating down towards the ground like they were balloons filled with air, but just as Victoria was about to sigh out of the tranquility of what she saw they started flashing brightly and there was a huge explosion below each of the flashes. The explosion was shaped like a funnel extending out of the ground, so it looked like an inverted tornado extending out of the ground. The flames twisted and danced and incinerated everything within their blast radius. One explosion was probably enough to level a building but when there were hundreds of those orbs spewing flames the heat and shockwaves were incredibly powerful. The one who had caused it all didn't seem to be affected at all though.

"I… can't…" The shock waves and the intense flames were also eating all the oxygen out of the air, so it was hard to breathe. Victoria was not sure if Alucard even had to breathe, but at least now she knew that she did. She saw black spots dance around on the edge of her eyes and everything seemed to be getting further and further away. Victoria could see the two intense spots of red come closer in her blurred vision before blacking out.

**Bezanthume **

"**What did you say? Hey! Fuck…" **Bezanthume shook the woman on his arms to try and wake her up. When she didn't respond he concluded that she had lost consciousness, since her light was still there. Her coldness did bother him to some extent though, but her reactions had been just as amusing as a normal human's, vampire or not. Bezanthume watched the rest of his spell bombard the land in front of him and enjoyed the amount of destruction it caused. This was his first time using this particular spell. He had crafted it with the accuracy and area of effect in mind, but this was his first chance seeing if it had enough destructive potential.

After the last of the orbs had struck down on the ground the inferno raged for another minute on the power of what there was to burn on the area they had destroy. The breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen gave the unnatural inferno an extra minute in the area of the town, but the nature of his spell was to accelerate the natural reactions to their maximum capacity and then converting it into his demonic flame, so what should have burned for hours or days was reduced to nothing in minutes. He was very satisfied when he saw the white hot pit of lava and molten steel the town and the woods had been turned into. He couldn't help but grin at the sight.

"**Yes, this will do. I will have to work on the time it takes to prepare and control this, but for destructive potential… You got to be kidding me!" **He roared when he saw something moving in the pit of lava. He had been sure there had been no demons or angels in the city, but what he saw flying above the lava looked like an ethereal form of a demon or an angel. What the hell was going on? Whatever it was, he should drop off Victoria Ceras back at the place he was summoned on. He flew over the rock platform and placed Victoria Ceras on the edge of the summoning circle. After that he flew over to see what the hell had survived his new spell.

He set down near the edge of the lava pool were the survivor seemed to be heading towards and saw something fluttering towards him. When he strained his eyes he noticed that it was a small pack of nocturnal flying mammals that the humans called bats. He still didn't sense any demonic or angelic presence from what looked like a group of animals. He watched as the lowest of the pack caught in flames and fell into the lava and how the highest ones kept on rising higher because of the lifting effect of the hot air. The highest bat multiplied into two and kept their altitude. So, that's how it had survived, but what exactly was this thing? Bezanthume watched as the surviving bats landed on the ground covered in an inch of ash. He then watched as the bats spread out and multiplied when the bats were turned into centipedes that piled on top of each other until a figure of a large man could be seen. The said man stood up and looked back at the pool of lava with the tails of his red coat whipping. He looked pissed, or exited, however you decided to see it.

"What could have done this? What could have this much power? Who could have this power? Where is it? Where is it? WHERE?!" The man the woman Bezanthume had met before called master and knew as Alucard yelled while cackling insanely. So, this was what an old and powerful vampire was like… a swirling mass of hatred and insanity. Still, there was a sharp instinctual intelligence behind all that power and instability… Bezanthume smirked and thought that fighting this thing could be good practice.

"**Here I am, vampire!" **Bezanthume simply shouted as he undid the spell that made him invisible to mortals. He slid out two of his daggers from the belts hanging on his thighs and slashed upwards violently to test the vampire. His power flowed through the daggers and then was released through the tip of the blade. The slashes were meant to cut the vampire in half, but at least its speed was not disappointing. Alucard was also able to sense the two lines of condescended energy charging at him, so his instincts were not so bad. Bezanthume's mother had called vampires "humans that are striving towards our power" and now it seemed like she had not been kidding. Bezanthume continued his attack by slashing his right hand dagger down in a 90 degrees angle and thrusting the left one towards Alucard as he dodged the first attack by jumping to Bezanthume's right. Alucard dodged by extending his hands and pressing himself flat against the ground. Alucard had a wide smile on his face for the whole time he was evading Bezanthume's attacks.

"**You're pretty good at running away, vampire…" **Bezanthume said as he sheathed his daggers back in their scabbards hanging of the belts. **"And I bet that cutting you to pieces wouldn't kill you, seeing that you survived **_**that.**_**" **Bezanthume said and pointed towards the pool of lava his spell had reduced the town into. Alucard just looked at him with a wide maniacal smile and excitement shining from his eyes. He stood back up and stood there staring at Bezanthume. Bezanthume didn't want to make his transformation any easier for him by cutting him up. From what he heard, vampires used transformations and illusions in battle, along with their inhuman strength that is.

Nothing he couldn't handle.

"You are pretty strong yourself. I presume you were the one responsible for that beautiful destruction. It has been a while since I met someone who could fight in par with me. Nothing but weaklings! WEAKLINGS! DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME!" The man called Alucard screamed as he pulled a large silvery gun out of his coat. He didn't actually think that he could kill him with a gun? No, there had to be something here, maybe a distraction? Was he planning on attacking while I dodge the bullets?

Well, if he underestimates me that badly, then he's not even worth mentioning. He's nothing more than a persistent pest, a cockroach. Bezanthume dived towards Alucard before he had even fired the first shot and sped towards him while staying as low as possible. He charged some of his demonic fire in to his palms with the intention of melting the weapon this demon wannabe dared to point at him, but he noticed another gun barrel pointed towards him from inside that big coat of his. Fuck, how could I have forgotten about his ability to grow limbs? Bezanthume heard how Alucard was pulling the trigger and slammed his hands on the ground while releasing his fire. He was above Alucard when he heard the gun go off. So, the vampire was a little smarter than he gave him credit for…

Bezanthume landed behind Alucard and slashed him in the back with the claws on his left hand and stepped to Alucard's right. He grabbed his right arm and then kicked him in the side with his left foot without letting go of the arm. He grabbed the gun that the severed arm was still holding and threw the arm into the lake of lava just to be sure. He thought about melting the gun, but when he realized that Alucard had actually tried to hit him he pointed the gun at Alucard. There had to be something in the bullets or in the gun that he thought would work on him. Considering the kind of egomaniac the vampire seemed to be it meant that it worked on him.

BHOOM!BHOOM!BHOOM!BHOOM!BHOOM!

The sound of the gun was very loud and the recoil was something that would shatter the bones in a human's arm. Bezanthume smelled something holy every time a cartridge passed him, so he concluded that the bullets were heavily hallowed in addition to being extremely destructive. Bezanthume threw the gun in the lake of already cooling lava and smirked at the sight of Alucard twitching from the pain of having hallowed bullets in his body and the spreading red veins on his back. Bezanthume knew he had not won, but Alucard would be forced to transform to save himself and he would be waiting for that moment. He charged his palms with his demonic flame and waited for Alucard to transform. He didn't think Alucard would be able to fire his other weapon in his condition, but when he heard the already familiar "BHOOM!" sound and felt a piercing pain in his chest he had to admit he had underestimated Alucard. When he was falling on his back from the force of the impact he noticed how Alucard exploded into a pack of bats.

Bezanthume fell on the ground and was very thankful that his jacket was well made. The hallowed bullet could have really hurt if the jacket hadn't stopped it. He slammed his hands together and the demonic flame gathered in them exploded out and made sure that Alucard would not attack as he stood back up. He was the underdog here, but he had been able to destroy one of his opponent's weapons, but the way Alucard was forcing him to defend himself was starting to piss him off. The part of Alucard that had been assimilated by his poison slithered to him and he absorbed it back into himself and found dozens of different minds in the small part of Alucard he had made his own.

"**Ah… I know your secret, vampire! Prepare to die!" **Bezanthume said and charged right towards the said vampire without bothering to concentrate his fire on his palms for more power. His whole body was surrounded by an aura that burned everything into nothing. Alucard raised his hand, but Bezanthume sliced the air with one of his daggers with the intention of making Alucard dodge, but Alucard allowed the slither of energy to cut off his arm. The arm then transformed into a dog/snake with dozens of eyes and it flew through the gap in his aura that using his dagger had caused and bit down on his throat. He ripped the thing off his neck and it was quickly burned to nothing, but the thing had been able to damage his human body by crushing his windpipe. Bezanthume coughed and his lips were stained with his own blood.

"You have immense power, but it's a shame you don't know how to use it, boy." Alucard mocked Bezanthume as he stood back while his throat was still healing. He healed fast, but the pain was still there it made it hard for him to concentrate. He growled and ignored the pain it caused in his throat. There was a lot to kill in this guy and it seemed like parts of him could operate independently if cut from the main body. He should forget about his daggers and focus on burning this bastard into nothing. He didn't seem to have ways to protect himself from his flame, but the immense amount of souls within him meant that it would take time to hit him where it hurt. Alucard had been able to survive his new spell when everything else was reduced to nothing after all.

"**You are a hard one to kill, Alucard. I admit that I did underestimate you, but I will win. If I am unable to defeat someone like you, then defeating **_**him**_** would be impossible. And I **_**will **_**defeat him!" **Bezanthume yelled as his throat had healed. He charged at Alucard and struck both of his hands through him and then ripped him apart and letting his flame burn away anything within his immediate proximity. He had adjusted the aura of flames to run closer to his skin to prevent Alucard from using the same trick again. Alucard quickly restored himself and charged at Bezanthume in turn and punched him with his right hand, ignoring the fact that the flesh was burned from his hand when he touched the aura of flames around Bezanthume. When Alucard's fist connected with Bezanthume's face it was barely nothing but bones, but the force behind it had not changed and Bezanthume was knocked back. He felt the itching that meant that the bruise that had been caused by his strike was healing and struck his right hand towards the vampire's face. The skin and muscles in left side of Alucard's face were seared off to the bone, but this didn't stop him from kicking Bezanthume off him. Both Bezanthume and Alucard stood there grinning at each other while waiting for their wounds to heal, before charging at each other again.

**Integra**

"How long until arrival?" Integra asked the helicopter pilot. She had set out to the town Victoria and Alucard were instructed to rid of ghouls after the intelligence department had reported the sudden lights appearing over the target zone and then the total destruction of the coordinates were Alucard was last reported being. She had to be sure if the strongest fighting force in her army had been destroyed by an unknown enemy. And she had to at least know something about that enemy before the trail got too cold.

"Five to ten minutes, sir Integra! As soon as we pass over these mountains the target coordinates should be visible!" The pilot yelled over the roar of the engine and the blades of the chopper. Integra nodded and moved back to her seat. The latest satellite images showed that the town had been reduced to an inferno where molten rock and steel flowed freely, but she would at least fly over the area to see if Alucard was alive.

"Get ready, Walter. You'll be my only protection down there." Integra ordered. Walter did as ordered and put his special gloves on. "Fly over the area once and then set down if I order you to do so!" Integra ordered the pilot. The pilot crossed the peak of the mountain and what used to be a thriving town was revealed. Integra heard the pilot mutter a curse and she was also speechless. What could have done this? The Geiger meters had not reacted at all yet, so it had to be something other than a nuclear weapon. Did those Nazi bastards really have something like this up their sleeve?

"Sir Integra, there is a hot spot near the target coordinates! It is even hotter than the lava! It also seems to be moving! There is another reading matching Alucard's near it. Sir Integra, what are your orders?" The pilot yelled and changed the course, so that the chopper wouldn't fly over the lake of lava the explosion had left behind. Was Alucard fighting what had caused this? It did seem like it.

"Land!" Integra ordered. The pilot opened his mouth to tell her the reasons why it was not recommended, but Integra was not in the mood "Land now, this is an order! Near the hotspot!" The pilot headed over where the registered hotspot was and Integra could see Alucard fighting something enveloped in fire. Was that what had done all this to the city? The helicopter landed and both Walter and Integra rushed out towards where Alucard and the unknown being were fighting. When Integra saw Alucard and the man enveloped in flames fighting each other while smiling her temper flared.

"ALUCARD, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" She shouted and both Alucard and the man wearing tight fitting black clothing and two belts hanging on his thighs with something looking like daggers hanging off of them. Alucard bowed towards her, but still kept his eyes on the unknown man. They both were quiet for a second before the unknown man spoke up in a rumbling voice.

"**She's hot, if it weren't for her bitchy attitude, then she'd be fuckable" **The quite young looking man said with a lecherous smirk while glancing at Bezanthume.

"Oh, really? I was there as she grew up, so I guess I can't see her in that light, but I'd have to agree. I actually like her attitude, though." Alucard answered.

"**What, why? Oh yeah, you're a masochist…" **The young man said and nodded his head, as if he had come to a great understanding. Integra was about to start yelling when she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Master! You're okay, thank god!" Victoria Ceras yelled as she ran to the scene. She tripped on her feet and ended up rolling down the hill Integra was standing on top of and in front of Alucard and the man on fire.

"Police girl, you were able to survive…" Alucard said, sounding rather surprised. Victoria was scrambling to get up and either didn't hear the comment or decided to ignore it.

"After I saw what had happened to the town I feared the wo–" Victoria was interrupted when the man that had been fighting Alucard spoke up.

"**Police girl? She's a policewoman, really? Her?" **The man asked, sounding even more surprised than Alucard. Alucard turned his attention back to the young man.

"Used to be, the village she lived in was destroyed by a vampire. She was the last survivor and I turned her into a vampire. Now she works for the Hellsing family, like me." Alucard answered rather calmly, considering the fact that he had been fighting the man just a minute ago.

"**Ah, I see…" **The man turned to Victoria. **"Good job on protecting and serving, Police girl." ** He said with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"What the hell could I have done?! It's not like driving a stake in the heart of your childhood friends is the first thing to come to mind!" Victoria said defensively. Integra gritted her teeth and shouted with her temper flaring up again when her astonishment had passed.

"SHUT UP! Alucard, what happened here and how is this person involved in it?!" Integra shouted and Victoria Ceras flinched and shut her mouth and Alucard turned his attention back to her, but the man covered in flames didn't react at all. He only stared at Victoria and stepped closer to her.

"**So, you lost every one you knew and loved in one night? They were all devoured by a force greater than you?" **The man said with a serious, maybe even a little sad tone in his voice. Victoria could do nothing but nod when the man approached. When the man reached Victoria the flames surrounding his body disappeared.

"Walter." Integra said and Walter understood the message and sent his string towards the man before he did whatever he was planning to do to Victoria, but the man struck out with one of the daggers hanging on his thighs and Integra saw Walter's strings floating in the air, cut and their lethality lost. It was amazing that the man could notice and cut all of Walter's strings in an instant. He was definitely not human.

**Victoria **

"**Let me have a taste of that sadness and helpless fury, Victoria Ceras…" **The man said and got down on one knee and wrapped his hands around Victoria. Victoria was red as a tomato and was unable to get a word out of her mouth when the man rose back on his feet with her pressed against himself. The flames reappeared again and surrounded the two. The man was holding her against himself with her left hand on Victoria's lower back and the right in her hair. His head bent down and he sniffed her neck.

"He- Hey, what do you think you're doing? Sto- Stop that!" Victoria screamed, but he didn't seem to be listening as his red eyes appeared in front of her and froze her in place yet again. He leaned in and gave her a small kiss on the lips and Victoria suddenly had the illogical temptation to return the kiss. She was spared from this embarrassing act as he moved his head to her ear and whispered with his rumbling voice for her to expose her neck. She did as he asked with the desire to be close to this man burning in her and stretched the collar of her uniform and leaned her head to the side.

She felt how the man's teeth sunk in her neck and how the blood flowed into his mouth from her, but she didn't care. It was feeling so good that she thought she would pass out if he bit any harder. What the hell was wrong with her? When Alucard turned her into a vampire it had hurt like hell, so why was this so different? She felt the man's right hand grabbing her breast and now she felt something like a small jolt of electricity go through the fabric before she moaned out loud. Was he using some trick to make her feel good? That was cheating… but she didn't mind, not at all…

He finally stopped drinking her blood and dropped her to the ground. Both Victoria and the man had the similar dazed look in their eyes and the man wiped his mouth on the palm of his hand slowly. Both the flames and the man disappeared a few seconds later and there was a very powerful and sudden gust of wind a little after he disappeared.

"_Bezanthume… Hey, Bezant… What is wrong with him?" _Voices that Bezanthume couldn't recognize at first floated to his consciousness. After a moment he recognized them to be Inoue Orihime's and her fairies' voices calling out to him. He opened his eyes and saw the face of Inoue Orihime above him. He shifted his gaze a little to the side and saw her large breasts. They brought back the strange "_dream" _he had just hand and wondered what the hell it was all about.

"**How long was I out?" **Bezanthume asked. He had no recollection of falling unconscious, so were these "episodes" getting more violent? Inoue Orihime and her fairies both jumped at the sound of his voice and Inoue Orihime turned her reddened face to Bezanthume. Bezanthume sat back up and Inoue Orihime moved back from him.

"Oh, only about half an hour… Were you having a… happy… dream?" Inoue Orihime asked with her face turning even redder than before. Bezanthume was trying to keep details about the dream in his mind and the question didn't really register in his mind.

"**Not particularly. Excuse me, but I have to go now." **Bezanthume said and jumped through the roof and then used his fire to direct himself to slide through the roof of his own apartment. He opened the door to his personal room and hurried to his coat. He pulled out a long black dagger out of it and examined it carefully. This was indeed one of those daggers he had been using in his dream. Its blade was about 30 centimeters long and double edged with a sharp tip. There were small runes running along the center of the blade and they glowed red as Bezanthume allowed a little power to run into the handle. The metal it was forged out of was black and only the re-sharpened edge reflected light. Bezanthume took the dagger and hurried into the armory. He looked around and found what he was looking for directly above where he had took the dagger. An ivory belt buckle shaped like a skull with fangs.

"**They…" **Bezanthume mumbled to himself as something was surfacing in his broken mind. **"A gift… From… from… Gah!" **Bezanthume fell on his knees as his head started feeling like there was broken glass inside his skull.

* * *

**Anyone who guesses what part of Bezanthume's body Orihime and her fairies were watching gets an imaginery apple!**

**Well, that's it for this time!**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


	17. Fluffy

**Yeah, I know it's been a long time since I last updated this story, but I have a new story up about Code Geass called What Resides Within and you should check it out to see what the I have been doing for the most of this time. Well, I must say that I might have had this chapter up sooner if more of you had left reviews after reading the last chapter. I'm just saying, it's not like I'm planning on abondoning this story... but it's a whole lot less likely if you do leave one.**

**Well, enjoy the chapter and review!  
**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Fluffy  
**

"**Gaah! Why is this… Why can't I remember?" ** Bezanthume groaned as the world swayed and twirled around him. The unspeakable pain in his brain right now would normally force a transformation, but he was deliberately fighting it in order to remember. He had a feeling there was something important he didn't remember, someone. He felt something break just behind his left eye and the left side of his world was bathed in darkness. He was going to be forced to transform in less than a minute at this rate, but he felt like there was something surfacing from his lost memory.

"Brother? Brother, where are you?" Rezaliel's voice faintly registered in his mind as he forced himself to remember. He lost the power to hold himself up and his forehead hit the rocky floor of the weaponry hard enough to cause a bleeding wound. He was breathing rapidly and clenching his teeth from the pain. He was starting to wonder if some memory was worth this, but the nagging feeling that it was _very_ important didn't leave him. "Brother! Brother, what is wrong? Brother!"

Seemed like Rezaliel had found hi –

…

"_Why?! Why did you do this?!"_

"_**Why? You come here to only ask me that? Because she had fulfilled her purpose, I can't have useless harlots scurrying about in my palace."**_

"_Har- HARLOTS!? Did you call her a HARLOT?! You… You… I will –_

…

"**Kill you, I will kill you…" **Bezanthume came aware of his own muttering and started to faintly see the world around memory had not let go of his consciousness and one more memory floated out from his pained mind, a name. **"Belial…"**

He felt how the transformation into his ethereal form started, but the pain it caused only slightly added to the pain he was in right now, so it was not as traumatizing and the numbness came as a relief. He knew he was going to have a major headache because of the state his body had been in before the transformation, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Well, he could, but he'd lose the little grain of truth he discovered from his broken mind. Right now he was not sure if it was even worth it, but he'd just have to wait and see. The immense hatred he felt when remembering that name made it seem it was something important from his past.

He felt his own self twist and expand to survey its surroundings and he became aware of the small form of Rezaliel holding her breath in his midst. She was holding her nose with her right hand and had her eyes shut tight. Did she actually think that she could inhale some part of him? He moved his ever moving form out of Rezaliel's proximity. He could sense how Rezaliel relaxed and let go of her nose. He didn't have any of the conventional senses of his human form, what he did have was an extremely heightened version of his sixth sense. He could feel even the minutest changes in the energy around him, so the view he got of the world was many times clearer in some ways, definitely slower and more detailed. His own form could envelop and thus thoroughly examine something and then use its whole mass to cut, crush or destroy it in any other way using the objects weak spots to its advantage, since he could spread out to cover vast areas in this form it was the most cost efficient for mass murder and to battle powerful foes without the power of absorption or sealing magic.

He started to gather his own self and reconstruct it into his human form piece by piece. It was difficult for humans to understand, but when demons were in their ethereal forms they were conscious of every single molecule and atom of their being and it made reconstructing their own body at will possible. Humans were so arrogant to think that their level of consciousness was so very high up in the evolutionary scale when they often were unaware of what happened within their own bodies.

"What happened, brother? I find it hard to believe that you would hurt yourself on a weapon in your armory." Rezaliel asked him as he reformed himself. He solidified his being and thought he saw Rezaliel's facial expression show surprise for a second before she was able to control herself. He decided to ignore it as excitement from seeing him again and then proceeded to fall to his knees. He had the king of all headaches and his left eye was still in excruciating pain. He heard how Rezaliel ran over to him and the sound of her feet hitting the floor sounded way too loud with his condition. It was like she was dancing on his temples rather than running over to him.

"What were you doing, brother?" Rezaliel asked telepathically, since Bezanthume's headache didn't get worse from hearing her voice. He was not in a condition to discern between spoken words and telepathy, he was barely in a condition to think, and even that hurt like hell. He gestured for Rezaliel to give him a minute and tried to collect himself. The pain didn't go away, or even lessen, but he was able to bear with it after a minute or so. The pain would fade in time, it always did.

From what he could remember, that is. Major parts of his memory was missing, almost all of what had happened before he ended up in that cursed orb was as good as gone from his mind and he could only remember that Rezaliel was his sister, but as any exact memories came… nothing. He could also remember hundreds of different spells and curses and most of them centered on destruction and ways to confuse or protect you from enemies. It was clear that he had been trained in using magic in battle and the future sparring match with a pissed off Shihouin Yoruichi should make it clear if he had been trained in hand to hand combat. The possible fight with a pissed off Urahara Kisuke after that should also discern if he had been trained in armed combat and what kind of weapons he was most familiar with. It was strange using these methods to find out things about your own past…

"**I'll be fine, Rez. There is no need for concern; I have a major headache, that's all." **Bezanthume got up on one knee and then reached out for support with his hand without thinking, grabbing Rezaliel's shoulder. He got up only leaning on Rezaliel's shoulder to keep his balance, but his weight still made her fall down on her knees. She grimaced after Bezanthume let go of her small shoulder and then quickly checked if her shoulder had dislocated. Bezanthume swayed on his feet and stumbled back a step, but was able to catch himself and spared himself the embarrassment of having to get up again.

"You are rather heavy, brother." Rezaliel stated in a slightly accusing tone, fully aware that her brother would probably miss the subtle undertone in her voice and the reason she said he was heavy. Bezanthume wasn't in the condition notice that kinds of things; he was barely in a condition to walk. Rezaliel knew that her brother had severe headaches after reconstructing his human form, but this was the most pain she had seen him in. She knew that his brother was invincible, but she had to admit that she was a little worried. She followed his brother as he walked out of the armory and then as he stepped out into the human world she jumped up on his shoulders just before he spread his wings and launched out through the ceiling. She had to recite the quick spell that made them both intangible for a moment to avoid making her brother's headache even worse.

"I really want you to teach me how to fly, brother…" Rezaliel said and adjusted her position on Bezanthume's shoulders.

**Tatsuki**

"What the…" Tatsuki muttered as she watched something dark and big shoot off into the sky without making a noise. She considered it being one of those stealth bombers, but why would they fly so low above a city? Wouldn't that take the "stealth" out of it? Sure, she only saw it because she happened to be watching the sunrise and now it was already out of sight, but it still seemed ridiculous. And besides, it looked like that it launched off from only a few blocks away…

"Damn, am I seeing things now?" Tatsuki muttered to herself and rubbed her face with her hands. Well, if she wasn't seeing things, she was definitely talking to herself. Could she really be losing her sanity? After what had happened with Benjamin she had felt more energetic than she ever had and no matter how much she tried she didn't get tired and was unable to fall asleep. Did Benjamin Coppwerwail's stunts really affect her so deeply to make her an insomniac? She found that hard to believe, but it was not like she could just dismiss the possibility. There was definitely something going on that affected her physically and mentally and even though Benjamin Copperwail in himself was not a very plausible explanation, it was definitely somehow connected to him.

Whatever had happened to her after her first encounter with Benjamin Copperwail had definitely changed her somehow, physically and mentally. The physical part was the easiest part to notice, since she had been unable to exhaust herself enough last night to fall asleep and a run around Karakura town only made her sweat a little and be short of breath for a minute. And she didn't jog; she _ran_, as fast as she could and then did a little parkour when she didn't feel like stopping at a red light. Even this much was weird enough to justify pinning Benjamin Copperwail to the wall, but the mental side was what was getting to her.

The first signs became painfully clear as she was doing her mathematics and chemistry homework. When she was doing math she noticed that calculating the equations in her head was faster than typing them into the calculator. She of course checked each one and could have dismissed as her mind being hyper because of Benjamin's little stunt, but the frightening part was that they were all correct. That much she could have dismissed as luck – Just barely though – but when she started doing her chemistry homework it started getting creepy. The assignment was to read two chapters out of the textbook and then answer a dozen questions based on them. She read the chapters once and then pulled out the questions to answer them while checking the book. She remembered the answers to each question without having to check the book. Whatever Benjamin Copperwail had done to her would definitely be a hit among people struggling with exams. If it could make her this… smart, then it definitely worked.

"Maybe I'm over thinking this… Well, I'll just have to ask him today, I guess." Tatsuki said to no one and then started running towards home. She turned her back to the sunrise just before the clouds on the sky started to suddenly disappear one round spot at a time: slightly oval holes appearing in the clouds and then almost immediately being covered by the surrounding clouds rushing to fill the void. These spherical voids appeared and then disappeared when the clouds shifted and disappeared in turn violently for almost a whole minute. After that the most sharp eyed of the people that saw the phenomenon could swear they saw something dark and big falling from the sky and straight into town with a smaller piece of it breaking off during its rapid descent.

Still, the only thing the authorities found later that day was a piece of cracked cement with scorch marks around it.

**Orihime**

Orihime shot up in her bed with her eyes still half closed when the alarm clock she had set up just before passing out from exhaustion went off and started to assault her hearing with its noise. She fumbled around the floor surrounding her bed and found the blasted device after half a minute of lazy searching with her hands. It took her another ten to remember how to turn it off and then she sat there in her own bed with the alarm clock in her lap and feeling rather victorious after turning it off. She stared into the distance for another minute thinking if she should get another ten minutes of sleep. It did seem very, very tempting, but if she did that it would be another ten minutes after that, and one after that… she'd end up being late.

With all of the stuff going on in her life right now she didn't want to be late for school on top of it all. Bezanthume was giving her enough trouble as it was just being himself. She knew he was a demon and demons did have a reputation of taking pleasure in messing with humans, but it still seemed unfair for him to involve Tatsuki-chan. What possible reason could he have had to do something like that to Tatsuki-chan? Apart from the obvious reason, which she was uncomfortably aware of because of what happened when he suddenly passed out. Bezanthume really was a stereotypical demon, at least what Orihime thought a demon to be...

Well, except that demons were the definition of evil and it wasn't like Bezanthume was evil. Sure, he liked to mess with people and had a dangerous temper, but he had shown that he could sacrifice his own wellbeing for someone else. He was manipulative, egoistic and unsympathetic to other's people feelings, but it seemed like he did things for his own amusement and to achieve something…

He was more like the definition of arrogance now that she thought about it. Sure, that was associated with demons as well, but still Orihime couldn't think of Bezanthume being your average demon. Orihime got up from bed and swayed on her feet for a while. She was a little dizzy and very sleepy, so it took a while for her to get moving. She shuffled her feet and was in the doorway to her small kitchen when she heard a sound that made her think of sheets and large wings, then she felt a slight breeze blow past her. She should have seen this coming a mile away.

"Human!" A clear and high-pitched child's voice shouted out all around her to her great surprise. Orihime turned around and saw the small girl with raven dark hair from last night standing in the middle of her apartment with a flowing black cape obviously too large for her wrapped around her shoulders in a dramatic fashion. She would have looked cute if her eyes weren't as intense as her brother's. It was incredibly hard to look away from those very, very blue eyes. They bore down right into your soul and made you feel uncomfortable. "You're a healer. Do something about my brother."

Orihime was finally able to get her attention away from the small girl's eyes and noticed Bezanthume lying on the floor motionless. She rushed over to Bezanthume while calling Shun'ou and Ayame out. Orihime kneeled down to where Bezanthume's head lay and her fairies took their places without saying a word, which was rather peculiar, but she wasn't complaining. She concentrated on expanding the field around Bezanthume's head, since it looked like his left eye was bleeding. The rejecting field expanded around Bezanthume's head and she started to try and reject what looked like black oil oozing out of Bezanthume's left.

She instinctively jerked her hands back and Shun'ou and Ayame dispelled the rejecting field. The vile hatred that she felt through her rejecting field was something so foreign and _evil _that it made her sick to her stomach. The twisted and sick hatred was definitely nothing that she had seen from Bezanthume. She couldn't even believe that he was capable of such a vile kind of hatred. The intense hatred she had felt before from Bezanthume had been more… alive than this. This hate that she felt was an old and bitter kind that never settled.

"So, you're saying that my brother's _angry _and the ooze is _spiteful?_" Orihime heard a child's voice say all around her. "Or maybe it's even more than that… I don't think there's a word for it, don't you agree? Anyways, back to healing, human."

Orihime looked back up into the small girl's eyes and their blueness didn't seem as captivating as it had before. It must have been because she had been still drowsy and thus more susceptible to suggestion… Oriihime wondered where she had learned those words. She dismissed the thought before she fell into her own thoughts again and expanded the rejecting field again. Shun'ou and Ayame sighed wearily, but did as instructed without saying a word. Were they afraid of…? Orihime was sure that Bezanthume had used the girl's name last night, but she couldn't remember it no matter how much she tried. She never had any trouble remembering Bezanthume's name and it was just as exotic, but somehow she had a feeling that wasn't the issue here. Why had she been able to remember Bezanthume's name so quickly anyway? He said it only once in some corridor in Hueco Mundo while controlling Ulquiorra's body and not in a very loud voice, but still she had been able to hear it and then remember it right away. Usually she was very bad with names.

"Do you need help? This going rather slowly… Oh, I'll go get the angel." The girl said to Orihime telepathically and then started walking for the doorway out of her apartment. The hems of her oversized cape dragged behind her and Orihime couldn't stop the warm fuzzy feeling she got when seeing something so childishly adorable. She had always liked children. The hems of her oversized cape slipped over the door said girl had kicked out of its frames last night.

"I am more than ten times older than you, human." The girl said telepathically and then turned left from Orihime's doorway, presumably going to Lilith's apartment and getting her here to heal Bezanthume. Orihime refocused on healing Bezanthume, but the girl's latest statement kept on nagging at her. If that girl was hundreds of years old, then how old was Bezanthume? She had presumed from how the girl had acted and how young she looked that she was Bezanthume's little sister, but if their age didn't show through from their bodies, then could she be Bezanthume's older sister? No, Bezanthume had acted like a older brother last night and the girl had acted like a little sister… By her point of view, that is. It could be that demon's had a different etiquette about these things. It might be that age didn't matter in the question of roles among siblings… There was so much she didn't know about Bezanthume and it seemed like he had known her from the first time he tried to reach out to her.

Orihime snapped back to reality as a drop of sweat trickled down into her eye and she had to blink furiously to fight the stinging. How long had she been healing Bezanthume's eye? She only saw that the rejecting field around Bezanthume's head had taken care of the ooze on his face, but the eye in itself was still like a pool of liquid darkness. Was her mind wandering to escape the utterly repulsive feeling she got when healing this particular injury? It did feel like poison drenching her mind as she was trying to heal Bezanthume's injury.

Orihime fought the urge to fall back into irrelevant trains of thought and took a better look at Bezanthume. His left eye was a pool of darkness and the thick, oily substance that was either covering his eye or had replaced it was emitting a repulsive sense of _spite, _as the girl had stated before. Bezanthume's other eye was open, but it was painfully clear the he was unconscious, since his eye was not shining it's unnatural light and only looked like a reddish shade of brown, more auburn than red. In other words: Everything that made him supernatural was gone and he could have been mistaken for a dead person with deep auburn eyes.

Orihime shook her head to clear her thoughts. She should get this over with as fast as possible so that she wouldn't be late for school. Bezanthume could probably get her in time to school again, but she didn't want to take the chance of Bezanthume feeling her up, like he had implied he might have done the last time…

She really didn't know anything about Bezanthume he didn't want her to know… She had to wonder why she was so surprised. Bezanthume had not lied to her about the deceptive and manipulative nature of his kin, but it still seemed rather unfair that Bezanthume knew everything about her and she barely knew his name. She diverted her attention back to Bezanthume's face and noticed that the left eye filled with darkness was directed at her. There shouldn't have been a way for her to know that, since it looked like a pool of black ink covering Bezanthume's eye and his other normal eye was staring blankly to the ceiling, but she felt a definite _depth_ in the blackness of the eye.

"Be… Bezanthume?" She hesitated on calling his name, since this really didn't feel like Bezanthume. She had no idea how she knew what Bezanthume felt like, since it seemed like he didn't let off any reiatsu, which she was rather used to sensing. Bezanthume's dark left eye stared at her and she had an urge to stand up and run out of the apartment, but now she could feel how her rejecting field was gradually destroying the black oil-like substance in Bezanthume's eye. Bezanthume had stared at her and made her feel inferior back in Hueco Mundo and Orihime had a ridiculous idea that whatever was staring at her through that oily stuff didn't want her getting rid of it and was trying to stop her.

It did seem ridiculous in hindsight, but right then she had to fight her legs' urge to get up and run.

**Lilith**

"_The sins of the father plaque thy bloodstained knight. Riding on a blazing basilisk the child cometh." _Lilith woke up to her own lips muttering these words in a mystical voice. She tried to remember each word and then started to try and make sense what she had said. It was nothing unnatural for her, or for many other angels that were clairvoyant. She had just been lucky, since she rarely had dreams foretelling the future, since they were usually rather unnerving and very hard to decipher, but usually foretold great turmoil or significant events. Her kind usually just got glimpses of the present, or the near future, but usually not something even nearly useful. She had foretold what she was going to have for lunch or dinner in more than one occasion.

Lilith sat up in her futon and yawned widely and then stretched just as widely. She should try and decipher her words, since they didn't seem to be associated with food. First: "_The sins of the father plaque thy bloodstained knight._" "_Sins of the father_"? She had no idea, but "_thy bloodstained knight_" would be Benny for sure. Lilith remembered calling him that in the past. So, Benny was in trouble; Big surprise. Then there was: "_Riding on a blazing basilisk_" A blazing basilisk would probably be a dragon and since it was riden, it was someone's familiar. Wait…

"_The child cometh… _Oh fuck!" Lilith snapped her head towards the doorway to the room where Benny had set up his door to the demon realm and when she didn't see a small girl with black hair and a condescending smirk she relaxed a little.

"Angel! Get up!" A child's voice chimed from the doorway of her actual apartment. She tensed up and slowly turned her head towards the entry hall. There she was: A small girl (though she seemed to have had grown a little) with raven black hair and a condescending smirk playing on her lips. This girl had always hated Lilith because of what she was and what she had been to her brother. You could say she was possessive of her big brother, but then you'd be making a gross understatement.

"Rez! You… You're here… You let your hair grow out, I see. It suits you, it really does!" Lilith laughed nervously and was practically screaming to herself to calm down in her head, but she couldn't stop the cold sweat from forming on her neck and she could feel her palms getting sweaty. Her eyes darted around the room, desperately looking for a way out, but she knew that she was screwed and there was no way out, especially if she had her dragon with her, like her premonition had suggested.

"Get up, now." The girl deep blue eyes bored down on her lighter blue ones. When Lilith's eyes were blue like the clear summer sky, Rezaliel's were like the deep dark blue of a stormy sea. The blue of her eyes neared violet whenever she was agitated or using her powers, Lilith figured it was because of her link to her brother. The girl's eyes were only a deep dark blue, so she wasn't that agitated; at least that's how it seemed. What could she want with her? Was she telling her to get up, so that her dragon could try and scorch her? Wouldn't be the first time…

Lilith slowly got up on her feet and unconsciously started to curl her hair with the index finger of her right hand. She glanced left and right repeatedly while waiting for further instructions. She didn't know the exact reason of her fear of Rezaliel, but her innate ability for cruelty was so much higher than of her brother that it was a terrifying contrast maybe? Yeah, that might have been it. She had been accustomed to Bezanthume kindness disguised as cruelty, but when Rezaliel came into the picture as such a sterling example of a demon it had shocked her to the reality of the world she was living in after her fall. She shouldn't have any reason to feel so nervous now, but still… she was very nervous.

"Follow me, angel." Rezaliel said and turned on her heels and walked through the door. It seemed like she had mastered the art of walking through walls in the time Lilith had not seen her. She used to go through them. Lilith glanced around one last time before following Rezaliel by opening the door and stepping out without bothering to put on any shoes. She felt that Benny wasn't that far and Rezaliel didn't seem to have any cruel games to play right now so maybe she just wanted an angel's healing powers to help Bezanthume out of whatever trouble he was in. In the afterglow of her premonition that sounded about right, but where was the little demonic fiend's dragon?

**Soi Fong**

Soi Fong was sitting under a tree in the park where there had been reported of being a mysterious explosion in both the human media and within Soul Society's broadcasts. The 12th squad had been raging something about what had happened to the spirit particles in the vicinity and there had been a request to the second division for escorts. She had been pondering on how long she should keep them waiting when Mayuri decided to call an old favor for her to…

Do what exactly? She didn't have the faintest idea what she had come to the human world for. She knew Mayuri had called her out on account of an old debt and wanted her to do something in the human world, but… what was it? She knew that she had remembered it even after she woke up in such suspicious circumstances. Could whatever that giant and the blond had done to her be affecting her memory? When would it be time for her swordmanship, or for her demon arts? She HAD to find those two as soon as possible. Well, according to her intel the human schools usually started in a hour or so. Hopefully she could get one of them to reverse whatever they had done to her then.

Soi Fong raised her head out from behind her forearms, as she was sitting with her knees to her chest and her head rested on her forearms, when she felt someone sit down under her. She was sitting on one of the thicker branches of a tree located in one of the grassy openings in the park. She leaned a little to the side and glanced at the person who sat down under her tree.

Because of the nature of her profession she was used to making split second observations and usually it only took a glance for her to measure out and define a person. What she did see was a rather tall woman, at least 177 centimeters, with red hair and dirty feet. She had the all-around muscle structure of an experienced fighter and Soi Fong saw at least three scars. Two shaped like crescent moons: One on the back of her neck and the second on the side; must have bled like crazy and she was probably lucky to be alive. The third one was a big old scar going across her collarbone in a 45 degree angle from her left shoulder.

What the woman was wearing was what she acknowledged next. She was wearing a rather strange and expensive looking leather jacket that was partly too big for her and partly too small, it must have belonged to someone else, a man most likely, since it seemed tight at the chest and too big in the shoulders. It seemed to be a dark shade of red and there were belts and straps all around the torso and on the sleeves. She was also wearing a black skirt that reached all the way over to her ankles, but when she sat down against the tree Soi Fong could see more scars on her shins. She wasn't wearing shoes either and the soles of her feet were green from the freshly cut grass.

And then, the very last thing she usually noticed about a person was what normal people take attention of first; facial features and appearances. Soi Fong had learned to be very professional at all times. The woman had scarlet hair that were somewhat messy and reached about to her shoulders. They didn't look dirty, only untamed. She couldn't see her eyes from her perspective, but from what she could see from her side profile she had high cheekbones, a pretty but slightly crooked nose and full lips. Her expression looked serious and she had obviously gone through a lot of hardship, but Soi Fong was still unable to her eyes off of her.

The woman started to unbuckle the last of the straps keeping the jacket closed and Soi Fong wondered if she should give her some privacy. She was starting to get guilty from staring at this woman for so long anyways, but she had started unbuckling without even glancing around, so it shouldn't be too bad, right? The red haired woman unbuckled the jacket and allowed it to open to her side and immediately started to rummage through a pocket on the inside of the jacket. She pulled out what looked like a black stick of incense, but when she bit off the end and then put it in her mouth she realized it was a cigarette of some kind. A disgusting habit in her opinion, but it fit this woman to a T. Still, the smell of the smoke caused her to gag and jump down from the tree. She had always thought that the stench of tobacco was appalling, but the stench coming off of this woman's cigarette was like a mix between brimstone and burning tires. How could she smoke that stuff with such obvious relief? How addictive is that stuff for someone to smoke it voluntarily?

Soi Fong coughed and had to stumble away as the smoke was bringing tears to her eyes. She quickly used shunpo to get clear of the foul smelling smoke and looked at the intriguing woman from a distance. She had opened her leather jacket and it seemed like she was not wearing anything under it to cover her torso. The jacket barely covered her enough for it not to be indecent. Soi Fong could clearly see the woman's clearly defined abdominal muscles and could almost see her generous bosom… She could not help feeling jealous. She knew she did not age like normal humans did since she was a spirit, but she had hoped she would at least mature in the hundred years Yoruichi-sama had been away. She had no such luck.

She was getting distracted when there was still something that bothered her about this woman. Something that had slipped by her, but now her subconscious was nagging about it. Because of her profession she took great attention to detail and minor details had a tendency to bother her. There was something she was missing… her eyes strayed to the cigarette the woman was smoking and she could see how the end lit up as she sucked air through it. She was ashamed to admit that it took her a good ten seconds to make the connection. She had not seen this woman light the cigarette at any point, so how could she be smoking it? Soi Fong was just pondering if she should investigate this matter further when she became aware of a flutter in the edge of her vision. By pure reflex, against her better judgment, she turned her head to the motion.

"A BUTTERFLY!" Soi Fong shouted out while grinning like a lobotomized idiot and pointing at the flashy little gay insect. Soi Fong slapped her hands to her eyes and blindly shunpo'd towards where she remembered there were buildings. Now, usually she would reappear a little over the rooftop and land gracefully, but with whatever influence that caused her to be so very excited about butterflies affecting her she hit her left shin on the edge of the building. Of course she fell and because she had her eyes closed she slammed her forehead on the hard cement rooftop. She could feel the stone crackling and also started to feel a bruise form. She had prided herself on being able to keep her composure under very stressful situations, but now she would have liked nothing more than to bring out her bankai and disintegrate the whole block, but gladly the tampering hadn't caused enough damage to her logical side for her not to be able stop herself from doing something that stupid. She rolled over to her back and opened her eyes. She looked at a clouds and then noticed that one of them looked kind of like a…

"A BUTTERFLY CLOUD!" Soi Fong shouted while grinning like a maniac. She clenched her hand that was outstretched towards the cloud and slowly brought it down to her forehead in an effort to calm herself. She failed miserably. "I AM GOING TO RIP OUT THEIR SKULLS AND BEAT THEM TO DEATH WITH THEM!"

**Bezanthume**

"_What? You're seriously saying that I should earn your respect? ME, a noble should earn a commoner's respect, when I could, and should, break your very being just for suggesting something like that?"_

"_Yes. I highly doubt you even could "break" me and besides; that wouldn't make me respect you."_

"_Then what would it accomplish, besides shutting you up? And believe me, that is starting to sound rather tempting the more you speak."_

"_It would prove that nobles are all alike… like Belial."_

"… _Most of them are."_

"_Are you saying you're an exception? You're even more arrogant that I th -"_

"_No, I am not saying that I'm an exception. I am just going to be the one to kill him."_

"… _That is still mighty arrogant of you. Considering you got your ass handed to you by li'l ol me…"_

"_Shut your mouth, bitch! I had defeated 100 warriors mightier than you before you crossed me so you just –"_

"_Excuses, excuses, excuses! For Lucifer's sake, if I had known that you would be such a whiny brat about it, I would have let you win!"_

"… _What do I do?"_

"_Huh? What are you talking about?"_

"_To earn your respect; what should I do then, if beating you is out of the question?"_

"_Uh… Well… Kill ten – No, twenty stone hydras?"_

"_Okay, I'll be back in ten days."_

_Hey, is that the last of it?_

_It does seem like it, it also seems like he's coming to._

_I though you said he was dreaming?_

_Demons don't dream, remember?_

Bezanthume became aware of his body rather slowly for someone of his kind. He heard things around him first and then became aware of his own body, which was rather weird since demons had complete control over their corporal forms and control over them should have been returned first. Still, now that he thought about it; what the hell was that whole "dream" about? Demons did not have anything that resembled such, but still he didn't know of a demon with amnesia either… Well, as far as he knew at least.

"But you said he seemed to be in a dream. I clearly remember you saying those words." A voice with a painfully innocent undertone said in a puzzled tone. Bezanthume became aware of his face and tried to blink. His body followed his orders sluggishly and the world he saw slowly started to come to focus. He saw to figures, one of them moved towards another.

"I only said he seemed to be in a dream because of its impossibility. Bezanthume told me that no demon has dreams, especially someone like him." A very familiar voice of Lilith said in a slightly annoyed voice. She sounded like she wanted out of whatever situation she was in. Was she trying to heal him? He could see the need to do so, but not the reason for her to get involved. He would get better on his own in time. Of course, he'd rather time wasn't spent on him regenerating, but still, she could leave him be. What could motivate her to help healing him?

"Just keep doing what you were, angel. You're healing powers are rather useful in this kind of situation." A child's voice said in a cold tone. Was that Rezaliel? Well, that was a no brainer; it was not like anyone else would talk to Lilith like that. As far as he could remember they didn't like each other that much. "As far as he could remember" that didn't count as much, now did it? Sure, he did recall details and memories when meeting people from his past and occasionally learned more with his telepathy, but his memory was still a complete mess.

"**Could you shut up…? I have a headache." **He said, partly to just stop them from talking he had to admit. He should have know he would fail miserably, since his reaction brought forth a sudden flurry of responses. he had a nearly crippling headache and they all decided to be worried about his health. Sure, that sounded fine and all, but you try dealing with it through a headache that feels like your brain is trying to force its way through your skull.

"Are you okay?" Inoue Orihime said in her innocent tone filled with worry. She seemed to be genuinely worried about him. Well, it was not like he could blame her, since he had kept on collapsing on her in the few days he had shared with her. He seemed rather prone to unconsciousness in her eyes, he thought.

"You are back!" Rezaliel shouted and continued by launching herself towards his lower torso. Her arms snaked around him like constricting snakes and then continued to squeeze him until Rezaliel's face was practically buried in his abdomen. It was not like he didn't appreciate this gesture, but it was rather uncomfortable for him.

Bezanthume blinked more feverously and became aware of two figures above him: One with orange hair and grey eyes full of worry and another with blond hair with eyes full of drowsiness. It seemed like Rezaliel had woken Lilith up for her to help him in whatever had happened to him. He turned to Lilith first and waved her a signal for her to go while Rezaliel was still being so intimate with him. He knew enough to know that any interaction between her and Rezaliel ended badly, mostly on Lilith's part, but still.

"Bezanthume, are you okay, what happened?" Orihime asked with her own brand of worry in her eyes and demeanor. She was such a saint that it did give her an annoying habit of worrying about right about anyone's well being, as far as he knew, anyhow.

"**Yeah, I'm fine now. Thanks to you, I guess. I honestly don't know what it was about so don't bother to ask. Rez, you brought me to her, didn't you?" **Bezanthume said, partly to praise Rez for doing a good job, partly to get her to stop squeezing the air out of his lungs. Rezaliel did loosen her death grip on his abdomen and looked up to him with blue glowing eyes.

"Yes, yes I did, brother." Rezaliel said in a rather proud tone, clearly waiting to be praised. Bezanthume patted her head and allowed her to keep on constricting him. She stayed there and tried to remember things about his sister. She obviously thought they were close, so he should act according to that. it was not like he would have allowed someone to act so familiarly in the past without there being any reason for it… At least, that was what he hoped.

"**So, where's Filia?" **Bezanthume asked as one piece of information fell upon him about his little sister. Rezaliel pouted in dissafication and uncoiled her arms from around him.

"Her name is Fluffy, I told you a thousand times. It's Fluffy, not Filia." Rezaliel said as she crossed her arms across her chest and sat on his thighs.

"**That's what I said, Filia." ** Bezanthume said without knowing why, but it felt so natural that he couldn't help himself. Rezaliel was about to shout an objection to his statement when a red haired woman wearing a dark red leather jacket and a simple black dress entered through the demolished doorway to Orihime's apartment.

"_You called, Lord Bezanthume?" _Filia said in Bezanthume's maiden tongue. He was aware of how Lilith was trying to sneak out of the door unnoticed with renewed passion after Filia stepped through the door and how Rezaliel immediately turned to Filia as she appeared.

"_Your name is Fluffy, and not Filia, right?" _Rezaliel asked in their maiden tongue. Confusing Inoue Orihime even more, as she had no idea what was going on, or who was this scareed woman that had entered her apartment.

"_Both are the same to my ears, Master Rezaliel. I am Fluffy to you and Filia to Lord Bezanthume." _The dragon serving their family said through her human form. Orihime glanced between Bezanthume and Rezaliel and Filia amny times, but still hadn't gathered enough courage to ask who was this woman.

"**This is the dragon serving our family, Inoue Orihime. Her name is Filia –"**

"Fluffy!" Rezaliel exclaimed enthusiastically, this seemed to have been a kind of an inside joke between Rezaliel and himself.

"**As I said, Filia." **Bezanthume said and gave Rezaliel a defiant glance. She looked away and crossed her arms while pouting. He thought he could still see a slither of a smile on her lips, which supported the idea that this was an old argument and both of them were used to it. He did feel some amusement from it as well.

"**Hey, wait… is that my jacket?" **Bezanthume asked when the piece of clothing Filia was using to cover her torso seemed familiar. He had been wearing it in his "dream" earlier.

"_Yes." _Filia answered bluntly and then continued to stare right into his eyes. It was not like he wanted his jacket back or anything, since the opponents he would be facing would be using cutting weapons for the most part. His coat was more useful against those kinds of opponents anyways…

"_**Fine, you can keep it, Filia." **_Bezanthume said and waved his hand in a dismissive manner.

"_Thank you, Lord Bezanthume." _Filia stated and then walked over to right above him (he still had Rezaliel sitting on his thighs, so he couldn't get up) and knelt down next to him. The red haired woman continued to bend down until her lips were touching his. Bezanthume had tried to keep Inoue Orihime out of his mind from her request, but now one distinct thought was so loud he could not ignore it and heard it clearly and rather loudly. The thought was:

_What the hell is going on here?!_

* * *

**Yeah, I love cliffhangers and you'll just have to deal with it, since I might be working on my Code Geass fic after this chapter. I shouldn't let it stand too long, so that I don't lose inspiration. Well, that's rather unlikely with an awesome anime as Code Geass, I recommend it wholeheartedly, btw.**

**Well, remember to review now!**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


	18. Mortal Combat

**I am back! Sorry about the long wait, but I was in Ireland for a montha nd on the second week my computer's hard-drive died and I lost the chapter, so this is the rewritten version of it.**

**Well, I explained myself. Now, enjoy!  
**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Mortal Combat**

First Bezanthume himself was confused as to what Filia was doing, but he couldn't remember any reason not to trust her, so he allowed her to come closer. The first touch launched splinters of memories from the recesses of his mind. He remembered the dragon's deep rooted loyalty to him and his sister and also had a feeling he had a major part in the reason behind that loyalty. He also received information about dragons in general as a general feed from Filia's mind. She trusted him enough to let down her innate defences against mind probing. He learned that Filia had served his sister faithfully and with conviction in his absence. She broke off the connection before he learned anything of the time before he left them. Why would she do that?

"**I thank you for your honourable service, Filia. You have earned your place among us." **Bezanthume said without thinking; he just thought it was appropriate for the situation and from the generous amount of happiness flowing from Filia's eyes it was a pretty big compliment. He just laid there trying to put everything he had learned from Filia into perspective. As he did that he gained more memories about himself and where he came from, but the events that led to him being imprisoned in the orb stayed in the dark. He could not discern anything from the orb itself, because it was a piece of very old and potent magic that only very old and powerful angels or demons could use. He didn't even know which side had imprisoned him. His mind was reluctant on letting those memories come back for some reason. _He _didn't want them to come back and it's not like it's anything too urgent anyways, so it could probably wait for the time being. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

"**Oh, stop acting so shocked, Princess. It was just a greeting." ** Bezanthume snapped as he straightened himself to a sitting position. Rezaliel moved out of his way while turning her attention to the television in the room. He had gathered from Filia's memories that she enjoyed that kind of thing of thing. The most mundane information about a civilization was the most entertaining in her opinion and the television was the perfect conduit for accessing that. He stretched his neck from side to side and heard it crack several times. He pushed Rezaliel of his lap and stood up. His clothes felt heavy his joints ached. He flexed his arms and rolled his shoulders and he could hear them creaking. Whatever this was he should probably get away from Inoue Orihime before it blew up in his face. His body being stiff and un-co-operative was never a good sign. His body had enough power in it to engulf the whole of Karakura Town in flames in mere seconds and definitely enough destructive power to scorch the whole of Japan if he totally lost control, or really wanted to do so.

"**Ah, I'm stiff... I thank you for healing me, Princess. I'll get out of your hair now. I have business to attend to elsewhere" ** He paused and looked at Rezaliel sitting on Orihime's floor and flipping through channels on her TV and Filia watching him intently waiting for orders. Rezaliel wasn't going anywhere for a while and he didn't need her with him. It would be better if she stayed here. **"**_**You two stay here." **_He thought out the spell to make him intangible and used a small burst of force from his wings to jump through the ceiling.

**Orihime**

"... You're welcome..." Orihime mumbled and then glanced between the two people in her small apartment. Rerzaliel had tangled herself in the oversized cape she was wearing for some reason and Filia, or Fluffy, had moved next to her. Rezaliel was leaning over to the older woman and she allowed it, but didn't pull her closer or adjust her seating to accommodate her in her lap. Was this really a demon and a dragon? They looked more like mother and daughter. Just as she was thinking about this Filia, or Fluffy, happened to glance at her and broke this misconception before it had time to mature in her daydreaming mind. She was not an caring mother with her child; she was a tamed beast guarding her master and it was obvious she did not trust her, at all.

Orihime thought it was better for her own well being if she got her morning shower out of the way (and left the room before Fluffy, or Filia, pounced at her throat) so she got up and stepped into the bathroom. They were both female after all, so she should be safe to shower with them in the apartment. Them not being human and not really bound by any codes of decency she was didn't quite register with her quite yet. She undressed and remembered to check that there was a clean towel in the bathroom. She didn't want to go out and get one with Rezaliel and Fluffy in the apartment. She got in the shower and was granted a moment of not having to worry about inter-dimensional demons and lecherous angels as she fell back into one of her very _normal _routines and stopped thinking as she washed herself. For a chance she was not interrupted and she felt fresh and relaxed as she stepped out of the shower.

"What is anime?"Orihime heard Rezaliel's voice inside her head and jumped at finding her standing next to her. Was scaring her half to death by appearing suddenly genetic or something, for god's sakes? Even though Orihime was frightened by her sudden appearance she couldn't get mad since her bluer than blue eyes now shone with genuine interest and she looked like an extremely cute child. Her posture changing and her eyes changing to mirror contempt signalled that she had read Orihime's thoughts yet again. It seemed like she didn't like to be thought of as a child. If what she had said about her age was true, then it made sense.

"Just answer the damn question, you whore." Rezaliel's voice said in Orihime's head as she crossed her arms. Orihime also noticed that she had claws like Bezanthume did as she did so. After seeing what his claws had done in Hueco Mundo the girl standing in front of her didn't seem so innocent anymore. Judging by how Lilith had acted around her she definitely wasn't as innocent as she looked.

"You shouldn't use that kind of language, Rezal –" She had regretted scolding her as she realized she was saying the words, but she really regretted them when Fluffy was looming over her and had a death grip on her neck. She hissed a few words in the language she presumed was Bezanthume's native tongue and tightened her grip. She saw the darkness seeping in at the edge of her vision and all strength seeped out of her limbs. She wasn't sure how long Fluffy had been strangling her, but something made her shift her feet and the movement made Orihime's body to move enough for the necklace Bezanthume had given her to slide out from her cleavage. Fluffy immediately let go and jumped away from her with her eyes wide with surprise, but her face as cold as ever.

"You probably shouldn't use my real name, even though it was given to you. Now, answer the question, human." Orihime coughed and gasped for breath and looked up as soon as the neon bright spots stopped dancing across her vision. Rezaliel was still standing there in her bathroom, not even slightly phased by Fluffy's attempt at strangling her to death. She didn't seem to have moved at all from the last time she spoke. It seemed like she didn't like her that much of either, or she thought that humans were below her... Probably both.

"Anime is... well, it's basically Japanese animation... It's just that it's usually the animation of a popular manga, which is way more focused in the story than western counterparts." She was quoting things she had read in a magazine once, but it was as accurate of an answer she could give. If his sister was as adept at reading her mind as Bezanthume was, then she should have already known the answer, so she concentrated on catching her breath instead of fretting over the presence of the person who had strangled her seconds before. My god, was she actually becoming used to such abuse?

Rezaliel turned on her heels and walked out of the small bathroom without another word. Fluffy took a step to go after the girl, but then stopped and glanced at her, at the pendant hanging from her neck. She bowed her head and said a couple of words in the language Orihime couldn't understand. She turned and followed after Rezaliel, closing the door behind her. Orihime sat ther eon the floor and rubbed her throat until the pain subsided and she felt she could breathe again. She got up and wrapped a towel around her torso and let her hair dry on its own. She didn't care at this point.

Orihime walked out of the bathroom and saw that both Rezaliel and were gone. The door was open, but also back on its hinges, so either Bezanthume or his sister had fixed it on their way out. Taking Rezaliel's cold attitude towards her into account it was probably Bezanthume, or she did it to please her brother. From what she's seen of the two they genuinely did care about each other and Rezaliel looked up to her brother. Yet they were demons, so their relationship might not be healthy by her human concepts. She should have already come to terms with the fact that Bezanthume was not even nearly human, but should it change the way she treated him?

There was the sound of the doorbell and Orihime tried to remember where her bathrobe was. She was wearing a towel around her torso, but you couldn't say she was decent. Who would be looking for her at this time of the day anyways... Wait, what was the time again? She had lost track of time as she was healing Bezanthume of... whatever that black stuff had been.

"Orihime, are you in there? We're gonna be late if you don't hurry up!" She heard Tatsuki's voice through the door and relaxed. If it was just Tatsuki she could simply let her in. She walked to the door while tying the strap of the bathrobe she was finally able to find. She opened the door and stood face to white with Tatsuki. She opened her mouth and leaned her body to the side like she was ready to go, but then stopped after seeing her apparel and wet hair.

"We are going to be late, aren't we?" Tatsuki said and hung her head in exasperation. Orihime smiled apolitically and tried to tell her to go ahead, but Tatsuki just waved her off and pushed into her apartment.

"You just go get dressed. Have you had anything to eat yet?" Orihime shook her head and closed the door. "Okay, I'll fix you something while you get ready." Orihime closed the door and while she rubbed her aching neck that either had not yet formed a bruise, or it had already healed wondered how long will it take for another inter-dimensional freak to come and ruin her life some more.

**Yoruichi**

Yoruichi slept soundly in a spot of sunlight at the doorway to Urahara's shop. She wasn't really a cat, but that didn't mean she didn't enjoy the simple luxuries of being able to turn into one. She wasn't sure if it were because she was in her cat form and her senses were heightened to feline standards that she sensed Benjamin coming before he was able to grab her. The strange fact that she could not sense even a slither of reiatsu from the man might factor into it, but it had to be some other trick that made it possible for him to sneak up on her. She leaped away just as his hand was about to clench the loose skin on the back of her neck.

"Ah, you were awake. Where's Urahara Kisuke? He might get in the way." Benjamin Copperwail said and straightened back up. The floorboards creaking as he shifted his weight. How could someone his size sneak up on her? Talking about his size... It might just have been that she was in her cat form, but had he shrunk from the last time she saw him? Who exactly was this man?

"Get in the way of what? How did you sneak up on me?" Yoruichi asked while jumping down from the shelf of candy she had leaped to. She didn't think he'd answer her second question, but she was still sleepy from her nap and she didn't remember the deal they'd made earlier. As she looked up to his lecherous smile she remembered and gave him a poisonous look. Was his hair redder as well?

"Don't tell me you forgot our agreement, Shihouin Yoruichi. You agreed to fight me in the nude if I were to accompany those schmucks to Soul Society... for whatever reason. We'll have to talk about that in more detail with Urahara Kisuke present... Who the hell is that?" Benjamin asked as his gaze shifted to a point behind Yoruichi. Yoruichi turned around and saw Ururu standing in the doorway to the apartment adjacent to the shop. She was intently staring at Benjamin and shaking. His smile hadn't disappeared, but had changed from the lecherous smile he had given Yoruichi. He took a step over Yoruichi and then he was bending down to Ururu. Yoruichi was almost certain that he had not travelled the space between them.

"Hello there, little one. What is your name?" Yoruichi heard his voice say in a soft tone that surprised her. She hurried over to where the conversation was taking place and noticed that Ururu seemed to be frozen in place by fear. Either Benjamin didn't notice it, or was deliberately instigating the little girl's fear. Why was Ururu so scared of him anyways? Could it be that she could sense something Yoruichi couldn't? Yoruichi did think it was weird that she, the former captain of the 2nd squad, couldn't sense any kind of presence from a person with such obviously powerful abilities.

"U- Ururu..." Ururu was able to whimper out through her shaking. Why was she so afraid of Benjamin? Sure, he was glad in a black overcoat and was huge, but he was not acting or seeming in any way aggressive, so what could it be? She watched Benjamin's lips form a slight smile and thought she was genuine warmth in his eyes, but when he raised his hand to pat Ururu's head she took a unsteady step back to avoid it.

"Stop it!" Yoruichi shouted and Benjamin's hand stopped a mere inch away from Ururu's head. "Can't you see she's terrified of you? Go to your room, Ururu." She said and Ururu ran out of the room and into the adjacent apartment. Benjamin was left there with his hand outstretched, but quickly straightened himself and cleared his throat. Yoruichi just had to smile, he was trying to dismiss his behaviour towards Ururu right now by ignoring it. She was not going to let him get off that easily.

"I never thought you for the type to have a soft spot for children..." Yoruichi sneered at Benjamin. He gave her a murderous look and Yoruichi stared back. After a minute or so he broke eye contact and his shoulders slumped. He pushed his right hand through his hair and sighed.

"I have a sister that's... about her age. It's not that I have a soft spot for children, it's just that... I'm protective of my sister... I guess." Benjamin said slowly, weighing his every word carefully. He made a vague hand gesture and then shrugged his shoulders. "But she sure is a timid little thing, isn't she? Is she always so nervous around strangers?"

"It's not that she's nervous around strangers, she was terrified of _you_." Yoruichi said and Benjamin only raised his brows at the comment. This conversation would go nowhere, so Yoruichi decided not to pursue the reason for Ururu's fright right at that minute. "Follow me; it will be better not to have our duel in town. Your power alone is destructive enough... from what I've seen, that is."

Yoruichi led him into the tearoom of the apartment adjacent to the shop and had him open the hatch to the underground training space. She told him to follow and jumped down into the hole without another word, using shunpo to slow her decent and to land on a good vantage point to see what he would do. She expected for him to climb down on the ladder, but was surprised to see him falling down with his arms above his head and the coat tails of his overcoat spread out to his sides like they were weighed down by something. She was aware that Benjamin Copperwail was not a normal human, she wasn't even sure he was human, but now she had to wonder if he had jumped down knowing he could survive the fall, or because he misjudged the length of the fall.

**Bezanthume**

He was aware of the length of the fall, but now he was not so sure about letting Yoruichi see that he could survive a fall like this. There were other options that left her in the dark about his force cancelling energy control. He was sure there was a name for it, but the thing about amnesia was that he couldn't remember it. He hoped that his fight with Yoruichi would at least shake loose some info about his battle capability. If it was just the all destroying flame and time manipulation he would have to plan accordingly.

By the half point of the fall he decided to not let Yoruichi gather even more information about him before their fight and sent a sudden burst of energy into the wrist guard on his right arm and causing the gauntlet to start forming over his hand, but then willing it to form into a long sectioned chain with a spike at the end in a 90 degree angle. He pulled his right hand over his left shoulder while the chain and spike was still forming and swung his right hand to the side with all the power his body could muster. The spike imbedded itself in the sky painted wall as he planned and he was swung to the side with the power he was falling in. He knew that a normal human would dislodge their shoulder because of the recoil of all that momentum coming to a sudden halt, so he willed the spike and chain to dislodge from the wall and retract just before the chain had time to do anything else but change the trajectory of his fall. He was now falling sideways along the wall, so he twisted his body in mid-air so he could start running on the wall to further change his fall into a horizontal flight. It took only about two seconds for him to reach the rocky ground of the excavated space under the store and he scrambled on the ground and rolled sideways like any human and when his momentum had decreased enough he willed out his gauntlets and jammed the claws into the ground to stop himself before he slammed into the wall of the space. When he stopped he coughed, got up and dusted himself off and then pointed at Yoruichi.

"A warning would have been nice! Are you trying to cripple me before our fight?" He exclaimed and was satisfied with Yoruichi's thoughts concentrating on wondering about his reflexes and the "devices" on his wrists. She was still extremely suspicious of him, so she still suspected that he might have broken his own fall just to make her drop her guard, but at least she didn't know anything for sure. "So, are we starting or what?" He said as he opened his coat and let it drop from his shoulders. It would be fine even if he were to hit it with a stray attack.

A puff of smoke and a flash of light where the only warnings for her first attack as she had transform into her human form before attacking. He saw the fist coming at his face, but was too late to parry or dodge it. The strike knocked his head back and disoriented him. He stumbled back and as he raised his left leg Yoruichi took the chance to deal a bone shattering kick on his right side to unbalance him. He was sent staggering back and he bent his knees down and bowed forward to balance himself. Now he had recovered from the first attack, so he was able to roll to the side before Yoruichi was able to smash her elbow on his neck. He raised his head in time to see her shunpo somewhere to the right and turned his head in time to see her drawing her right fist while charging at him. All thoughts and strategies had already fled from his mind and he acted out of pure instinct as he brought his left arm up to catch her right hand by the wrist and redirect her punch to his left and then hit her in the neck with his right hand with the fingers straight and pointed towards her neck. Yoruichi was able to avoid this by kicking herself back by kicking him in the chest and releasing his grip on her wrist with a similar strike to the inside of his wrist.

"You embarrassed 'cuz you're naked, or do you always get so excited showing off your body to strangers?" Bezanthume said with a voice enlaced with laughter. Yoruichi jumped off of a rock formation and launched herself towards him. He lowered his stance and brought his left hand forward with the palm down and fingers relaxed and with his right hand closer to his body and the right lower and closer to his body with his palm upwards. He figured it was a martial arts pose of some kind, but he didn't really care at that point. Yoruichi was too much of an experienced fighter to do the same thing twice, so it didn't come as a surprise to him that she used shunpo to jump to the side just before she was in his reach. He had seen her jump to the left, but he heard her enraged thoughts to his right and above him. He turned and brought his hands up in time to parry the descending kick to his head and then proceeded to grab her ankle, pull it violently to the side and quickly step forward to land a blow in her lower back. She kicked him in the abdomen with her other foot and then jumped away when he loosened his grip because of the pain in his stomach.

"Hah! You must be a real tigress between the sheets, sweet cheeks!" Bezanthume shouted and dashed towards Yoruichi with all thoughts wiped from his mind. The world around him was clearer than ever and seeing Yoruichi where Yoruichi jumped using shunpo was easy, but his body could not catch her. How did she do that "shunpo" thing anyway? All he could do now was to keep fighting her and hope that he also had a similar trick up his sleeve. He could always slow down time, but that was a little too exhausting to use in every fight he wandered into. He charged towards Yoruichi when she stopped to start her attack, but she was fast enough to jump away from his descending fist. She was keeping herself low to make it harder for him to use his fists in battle. She probably didn't want to get burned, but he had intentionally kept his fire back to remember hand-to-hand combat. She heard her thoughts to his left and turned his head to see how she was attacking. A rolling kick aimed at his head, so he ducked and as he tried to hit her without success he tried to memorize every detail as she used to shunpo to dodge in mid-air. He was not in a very favourable position and could except the kicks to his chins and the crushing elbow to the back of his head. He fell to his arms and knees with pain radiating from the base of his skull.

"You're all talk with nothing to back it up! This isn't a fight, this isn't even a spar; this is is just me pummelling you! You're pathetic!" Yoruichi said as she stood at a safe distance. It was not that she could move that fast consecutively, she was able to move from point A to point B at blinding speed, disorienting the opponent and giving her a chance for a surprise attack. He knew that, but what made it work? What had he learned about shinigami, as they called themselves? They were human souls with high spiritual power and the sword was the manifestation of that power. They were able to walk on air because of their ability to gather spiritual particles from the world around them and jump along. Could that be it then?

"You have some moves and your reflexes are definitely superhuman, but I'm faster than you, even without using shunpo. When I saw what you can do in the park the other night I was cautious as to what to except, but this is just disappointing. You can blow stuff up with a snap of your fingers, but you can't win a fight. I don't know why Urahara wanted you to join this Ichigo character and company..." Why does she start talking in a middle of a fight? Is she really that sure of her abilities? Bezanthume pushed himself up and wondered why she wasn't going for the kill. It was clear that she could see through him, so why hold back? Well, that didn't matter now. She was somehow able to move at incredible speed in a somewhat straight line and since her body was made out of energy particles the laws of physics didn't apply to her to the same extent as humans. Maybe that was the trick, she was basically energy controlled by a single will...

"Oh, would you stop talking already and either fuck me or try to kill me!" Yoruichi's fist was thrust into into his abdomen with such force that a normal human would break in half. It seemed like the gloves were officially off. If she was made out of energy the laws that held down her speed were the limitations of space and time and the power she had to propel herself. "It always comes down to power, doesn't it?"

**Yoruichi**

As soon as he said those words and Yoruichi registered the smirk on his face she also felt a sudden change in the air around him. She tried to jump away and use shunpo, but his hand clutchind around her skull stopped her from doing it. She was going to kick him in the chin to free her, but there was a flash of red light and an unbelievable pain on her forehead. She found herself flying away from him spinning uncontrollably. She was disoriented and nearly blinded by the flash of light and the blow that came with it, but she was more surprised by the sudden speed he had moved. She should have known better than to fall into such an obvious trap! She created a foothold in the air and then used shunpo to jump away from the next attack. Where the hell was he? The fact that he didn't emit any reiatsu meant that she couldn't sense him coming

"Well, you've got a point there; you really should have seen this coming." She heard him say just before another flash crashed her into the side of a rock formation. The impact of the blast of light had been immensely powerful, but also spread out too wide to cause any serious injury. Either it was intentional, or the attack itself only worked in close combat. She had to keep her distance from him now on. She pushed herself from the rock and was able to dodge his open palm aimed at her head. The rock she had crashed into exploded and she used the distraction to get away from him.

"You really shouldn't have started talking in the middle of a fight, Shihouin Yoruichi. You got cocky because I was so much slower than you, but your babbling gave me time to figure out how to move as fast as you." Benjamin said while another burst of red light dispersed the dust around him and blasted some of the rubble away from him. He didn't move at all, or mutter any words, so it had to be another special ability of his, like that explosion ability. Was it the reason he could move so fast as well? Did he use it to propel himself forward? His hands didn't seem to be the only place he could discharge it from.

"What the hell are you, Benjamin Copperwail? I seriously doubt that's your real name either. What's your –" She had to jump to the side as she saw that red light glow from every inch of his body before he started to run towards her. It was clear that he was using that red light to propel himself, but he was still slower than her shunpo. She jumped away using shunpo and landed on a nearby rock and was already preparing to attack when she noticed that he had already disappeared from where she expected him to be. Was he even faster than she thought?

"It's a bitch fighting someone you know nothing about, isn't it?" She heard Bezanthume say below her. Before she was able to jump away he was able to slash at her left thigh with the claws on those gauntlets of his. He seemed to have equipped them in the time she had lost him, but that was not the thing that surprised her; it was the fact that he jumped out of the rock she had landed on like it was in no way different from the air around it. He landed on the rock and stared at her intensively while he brought the gauntlet that had slashed her with to his mouth and licked the blood off it with obvious pleasure. "This is going to be fun, Shihouin Yoruichi..."

**Urahara**

"How 'bout you come out of the shadows and have a cup of coffee with me, Urahara-san? Or maybe you'll prefer tea, since you're all Japanese?" The beautiful blonde with long and straight hair said just after sitting down at a caffé. Her knowledge of him tailing her came to a bit of shock to him, but not a surprise. It was clear she was not a normal human being from what he'd seen so far. For one thing she was too perfect to be completely human, not even a single flaw in her complexion or a wrinkle in her clothes. There was also the unearthly light that seemed to shine from her eyes and fill anyone she came into contact with serenity and feelings of love for her. He had tried to avoid eye contact with her for that very reason, but now that she was looking right at him it was hard not to meet her eyes.

"How long have you known I was tailing you?" He asked when he sat down in the chair opposite of Lily Copperwail. She ignored his question and waved a waiter over. The waiter was a young girl with brown hair and brown eyes and she was blushing deeply because of making eye contact with Lily. Seemed like the effect her eyes had on people was universal.

"I would like a latte and would you bring some green tea for my friend here, sweetie?" Lily said and then flashed a dazzling smile to the waiter. She stuttered a reply and then rushed off blushing like a beetroot. Lily watched the waiter walk away and waved at her a little when she turned to glance at her. It must have been hard to believe that someone like Lily existed. "Aren't they just the cutest in that age? And to answer your earlier question: I knew from the start, but didn't know it was you until just now. I decided to postpone going to school to mess with Chizuru and talk it out with you."

"Is that the only reason for you to go to school?" Urahara asked, surprised that she would admit it so openly. He knew that she was not human and most definitely not a high school student, but did she know he knew, or did she just not care? She seemed to be less concerned about not seeming like a human than Benjamin Copperwail, but both of them seemed to be using some way of making those around them believe that they were what they said they were.

"Oh, it's just so boring there. The teachers try to teach me things I can change with a thought as truth. They actually thing that there's a set amount of matter in the universe and they can only change form, not disappear or multiply. If you actually agree with that, you're a hopeless idiot. God created this world out of nothing and then gave it those rules, just so humans here could amuse themselves by discovering them. Then He moved on and left you to fend for yourself." Lily Copperwail said this with a furrowed brow and an agitated tone, but it sounded like she was just making conversation. He had not taken her for a religious nut, but here she was talking about God and the creation of this world by Him. Before he could say anything the waiter returned with the coffee for Lily and the green tea for him. Lily smiled at the waiter and thanked her and then surprised Urahara by pinching the waiter as she walked away. The waiter yelped and looked at Lily in surprise, but only hurried away blushing even deeper than before.

"I did not come here to debate theological matters with you, Lily Copperwail. I asked a friend of mine to ask Benjamin Copperwail to travel to a place called Soul Society. I didn't tell him why, but he seemed rather eager to do so. I came here to ask you why that is and to ask if you will be joining him or not. I know you are not human and I am not sure if you are like him either." Urahara blurted out hurriedly. He had not intended to tell her everything like that, but he had made the mistake of meeting her eyes and he suddenly felt terrible about keeping secrets from her. Lily Copperwail only sipped her coffee and followed the blushing waitress with her eyes and Urahara sipped his tea while waiting her reply. He was surprised to notice that his hands were shaking and his palms were sweating. He was actually nervous to be so close to her and it was not because he thought she was dangerous either.

"The thing is, Kisuke-chan, that I owe my life to Benny, so I'll probably be joining him if he really is going to Soul Society to do god knows what. And if you do know what Benny is, as you seem to think, then you should have a pretty good idea why he agreed to help you. How's your tea?" Lily asked and took another sip of her coffee. She was still watching the waiter and the poor girl was blushing like a beetroot and fumbling with the orders. Lily seemed to take pleasure in making girls doubt their sexual preferences.

"My tea is alright. What did you mean when you said that you can change the laws of physics with a thought?" Lily glanced at him briefly and then set the coffee down. She was still staring at the waiter, but now she was making vague hand signs and muttering words under her breath. Kisuke noticed a change in the air around them and thought for a minute that she might be attacking him in some way, but it was probably too late already, so he just sat there and sipped his tea. Lily stopped muttering words and brought her hands together. She then proceeded to spread them apart and then grabbed something in the air and suddenly she was holding his cane in her hand. She then spun it between her fingers and threw another in her other hand. She handed both of them to Kisuke and he took them in his hands.

"Good luck figuring which one of them is the real one, Kisuke-chan." Lily said and gave him a smile. His hands flew to where he knew he had put his cane and his hand closed around thin air. When did she grab it? Was it when he had been entranced by her eyes, or when she had been muttering those words? Had it all been just to distract him while she grabbed his cane, or was she really able to displace and copy matter? "How did you –" He was able to say before she interrupted him.

"Now we should hurry back to that dusty old shop of yours before Benny rips that kitty apart." She said and stood up from the table. Kisuke looked down at the table and noticed there was a 10 000 yen bill on the table spite of the fact that he was sure she had not taken out a wallet or placed it there at any point. He picked the bill up and saw that there was a phone number and the words "call me" written on the back. She was really into confusing girls by flirting with them it seemed. He set the bill back on the table. Urahara got up and started following Lily down the street when what she had said when getting up hit him. He had been too shocked by his two canes before to take any notice of it.

"What did you say about Yoruichi and Benjamin?" Urahara asked when he caught up with Lily. She was tall and was walking in a brisk pace, so he almost had to run to keep up with her. He was scanning for Yoruichi's reiatsu and did notice that it was flaring in the direction of his shop. She was definitely fighting, but could this Benjamin Copperwail really beat her? Her reiatsu was flaring, but it was also weakened, so Lily's words might have some merit to them.

"I'll meet you there, Kisuke-chan." Lily Copperwail said and then disappeared along with a gust of wind that forced him to grab his hat to stop it from flying away. He had started following her to get some answers, but now he had more questions than before. At least it was certain that neither of them were human. He looked down to his two canes and tried to figure out which, if either one, was the real one. They both felt like his Benihime and were identical in any way, but one of them just had to be a fake. He decided to think about it later and started to shunpo towards his shop. The closer he got the more obvious it came that Yoruichi was either fighting a losing battle, or was sick. He couldn't sense who she was fighting, but by the flashes of reiatsu from Yoruichi they could at least match her speed and were powerful enough for her to dodge their attacks.

**Yuzu**

"You really shouldn't be moving, Yuzu-chan! I'll take care of the cooking and cleaning and laundry and –" Kurosaki Isshin pleaded his daughter desperately. Something or someone had attacked his daughter less than two days ago, so Yuzu could understand his worry, but she still remembered the last time she let his father cook because she had a cold and Ichigo and Karin were both otherwise preoccupied. She had gotten over her cold rather quickly because of the food, but it had tasted terrible. Her father put more weight into nutritional values than how the food tasted. Ichigo and him had had a rather lively fight about him cooking again, ever. According to her father the victor was still undecided, but Isshin had been prohibited from getting near the kitchen from there on out.

"Dad! I feel fine and there's not even a mark on me anymore. I don't feel dizzy anymore either. I can do the chores myself... but you can take the laundry out to dry, since you're so willing. You have patients, so please get back to the clinic after that, dad!" Yuzu shouted after her father as he hurried to take the laundry out for her. She would have liked to have done it herself, since doing something would have helped her not to think about the attack. She was fine physically, but she was still hesitant on going outside on her own because of the fear that whatever the spirit had been that attacked her was still out there and could come back. It had brought her back to her home and Ichigo's room had a huge hole in its ceiling, so she shouldn't feel safe at home either. The hazy memories she had about the thing that attacked her asking her where she lived and then of flying here and seeing huge black feathered wings didn't help to alleviate her fear and confusion.

Her brother had left for school seeming grumpy and tired, only asking her if she really was okay to be doing chores already. She knew that he thought it was his duty to protect her and Karin, so she understood that she felt frustrated and angry because he had been unable to do so. Ichigo could see and talk to spirits, but Yuzu thought that he couldn't have done much to protect her against whatever had attacked her, but was sure not to say this. It would only make him feel worse.

"You ready yet, we're going to be late at this rate, Yuzu!" Karin shouted from the sofa in front of the TV. She walked to school with her now, believing that an attack like the one she had suffered couldn't happen while she was there. That might be true, since Karin could see spirits better than she could, so they would know to run if it were close. At least that's what she hoped, Karin might have confronting the assailant in mind, but she didn't know how big or strong it had been.

"I'll just run up and grab my bag!" Yuzu shouted as she put the last of the dishes to dry and hung her apron on the wall. She ran up the stairs and when she passed her brother's room she heard someone moving and then saying something that she couldn't make out because the door muffled it. The first thought in her mind was that the thing that had attacked her was standing in wait just behind the door, waiting for her to pass by so it could attack her again. She froze in place and thought if she should slowly retreat back downstairs, or run when she heard the voice again and now that she was right at the door and not moving she could make out that it was the voice of a child with a puzzled tone. Whatever had attacked her couldn't have that kind of voice.

She swallowed hard and then did something that was probably the most stupid thing she could have done in that situation when she thought about it later. She reached out her hand opened the door. She opened it slowly and peeked into the room through the crack. The first person she saw almost made her run back down and call her father, since she looked like a burglar. It was a woman with scars on her neck and a crooked nose that had been broken at some point wearing a tight leather jacket and a long black skirt with red decorations. When she saw the other person in the room come into view and hand something to the first and then turn towards her, a bright smile still spread on her face she just couldn't think of them as burglars anymore. The other person was a girl about her age with big deep blue eyes and raven black hair that was even darker than the black cape draped around her. The girl stopped and stared at her for a second and Yuzu decided to step into the room for some reason.

"Uh, what are you doing in my brother's room?" Yuzu asked, still lingering in the doorway. They didn't seem dangerous, but they were still strangers in her home and the smile that had frozen on the girl's face was starting to make her nervous. As if reading her thoughts the girls smile turned from a bright smile that showed her pearly white teeth to a friendly smile that curved her lips as she closed the distance between them in what seemed like one fluid and long step.

"Well, this is embarrassing. I thought we could be out of here before anyone found us out, but now that you're here could you tell me what parts of this I need to access a place called "the internet"?" The girl said in a clear voice with a confident tone, like her invading Yuzu's home was the most natural thing in the world. She placed her hands on her shoulders and gently directed her to her brother's desk and to the computer screen on it. The thing she had handed to the woman earlier was the computer itself. She was invading their home and now she was admitting she was going to steal her brother's computer? Either she really had a valid reason on being in her brother's room or she was the most confident burglar ever.

"Well, you'll need the mouse, the computer screen, the ethernet cable, the power cord and..." Why was she telling her this? Maybe it was those big blue eyes looking at her so pleadingly. Whoever this girl was, she really was beautiful. Big blue eyes, small and upturned nose, pale skin, cherry red lips that looked soft as – Why was she thinking like this? She became aware of the fact that she had trailed off while she had been admiring the beauty of the girl's features and blushed furiously. "I – I think that's all you need..."

"Okay, so I need that, that and... that." The girl said and then hurried to unplug the Ethernet cable and the power cord from the wall and hand them over to the woman along with the mouse and the mouse pad. Then she lifted the computer screen with the cords attached to it herself and seemed to take inventory of what she had before turning back to her. Yuzu was too shocked of the kind of thoughts she was having about the girl to meet her eyes, or do anything else than just to stand there and try to fight down her blush.

"I guess I should thank you and ask you to not tell anyone we were here." The girl closed the distance between them in another fluid step and leaned in close to her. Her big blue eyes coming closer and Yuzu could only stand there and admire their beauty as they came closer. Then she felt the girl's lips against her own. She had opened her mouth to ask why she was coming so close and now she felt the girl's lips close around her bottom lip and tug it slightly before she stepped back and smiled at her. She couldn't get a word out of her mouth, but she felt the blush rushing up her neck and all over her cheeks. "Thanks for the help. This will be our little secret, Yuzu-chan."

"Yuzu, what's taking you so long?" Karin shouted from the stairs and Yuzu turned around in time to see her step into the doorway. "What are you doing in Ichi-nii's room, Yuzu?" Karin asked her, not even glancing at the two strangers behind her. Yuzu turned around to ask the girl what she should say, but she had disappeared along with the woman with the scars and the crooked nose. She turned back to Karin with the blush still in her face and the feeling of the girl's lips still on her mind.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I didn't see nothing or anyone in here, neither did I ki – I mean, I'm just cleaning! Yes, I am just cleaning! I saw that it was dirty so I came in and kisse – NO! I mean – I mean – I..." Yuzu fell into silence and found the floor extremely interesting. How could that girl close the distance between them in one step?

"You found Ichi-nii's porn stash, didn't you?" Karin asked and crossed her arms. Yuzu looked up to her, ready to deny it, but then thought that it was a better explanation than what she could come up with. She nodded and muttered that she just looked a little and put it back. Karin walked over to her and placed her hands on her shoulders, exactly like the girl had done and started to guide her out of the room saying "It's a part of growing up, Yuzu"

**Yoruichi**

Benjamin had kept on using that red light to keep up with her and to attack her along with that ability to slide through solid objects and to tell the truth it had gotten harder and harder to dodge his attacks as he seemed to become more adept in controlling his attacks and also faster because he used the same red light he used to attack to keep up with her shunpo. She had been forced to use shunko to get a couple of good hits in. She had broken his right knee and tried to bash his skull in before he could use the red light to make her shunpo away. He had fallen to the ground like a sack of potatoes and Yoruichi leaned against a nearby rock, breathing heavily. He had forced her to use shunpo almost continuously for about an hour and she hadn't seriously exercised for about a hundred years, so it took its toll.

After she noticed his slightly reddish hair had turned raven black and grown twice their previous length she knew there was something wrong. His complexion had also changed when she had not been looking. He now looked deathly pale, like he had not stepped out into the sun for years. And when he started to push himself up she noticed there were long black claws growing out of the tips of his fingers. The gauntlets he had been wearing had disappeared and the wrist guards fell to the ground for some reason. He had pushed himself up and then swayed with his shoulders slumping and arms hanging low. His grown black hair covered his face, but she was sure it was not the same face that she had been fighting more than an hour.

"_**You insolent whore...How dare you... I'll rip you apart... I'll rip out your heart and eat it..." **_The man that had been Benjamin Copperwail said in a booming voice that was so void of any trace of humanity and so full of homicidal rage that it froze her in place and made her legs shake. He snapped his head up and she could see the black voids that used to house such sparkling green eyes in foreign features. She felt some kind of attack coming, even though he had not moved or there had not been any other sign, but when she jumped to the side the rock she had been leaning on suddenly had a fist-sized hole through it. His black eyes followed her and she jumped up just before the rock she had landed on lost a spherical chunk of its mass. His eyes followed her yet again and she jumped away and saw a round section of the painted wall disappear and ten meters of rock behind it as well.

She used shunpo to get behind him and then used shunko with the intention of driving her hand through his chest. He had gone insane for some reason and she couldn't hold her punches when he was so obviously after her life. She saw him raise his hand to his side and strain his ring finger and thumb together and when he heard the dry snap of him snapping his fingers he had disappeared and she suddenly felt a cold and incredibly powerful hand clutching her neck, with the fingers circling all around her neck and meeting the thumb. The pressure around her neck got stronger and she could feel her consciousness leaving her. She drew back the hand she was going thrust through the man that was somehow behind her and strangling her, but his other hand struck out at her right arm and the black claws easily lodged themselves into the bones on her forearm.

"_**Weak..." **_She heard the cold and furious voice whisper as she was raised by the hand holding her neck and felt the fangs of a carnivorous animal sink into the flesh of her shoulder. The claws that were imbedded in her forearm must have had some kind of poison in them, since she felt paralyzed, but not in numb in any way, since the pain she felt when the pale monster bit down on her shoulder and then started to rip out a chunk of her flesh was blinding.

"Sing, Benihime!" She heard Kisuke's voice just before her consciousness was about to leave her and the high pitched voice Kisuke's swords attack made was the sweetest sound possible in that situation. A red light hit the head of the monster trying to eat her and it let her go to concentrate on Kisuke that was flinging red energy attacks at the pale freak with what looked like two Benihimes. The pale monster's black eyes were crying black oil-like substance and it flowed harder every time an attack hit it. Finally after standing there and taking about fifty of Kisuke's attacks the thing finally stumbled back and fell on its back. Yoruichi thought she saw a red light shining through the blackness of its eyes just before the last attack hit and it fell.

"I feel obliged to say that that was not Benny... I can heal the hottie if you want, Kisuke-chan." Yoruichi heard a female voice say in the same direction as Kisuke. She wondered who the hell would call Kisuke "Kisuke-chan" and when she saw the beautiful and tall blonde look down at her with a lecherous look in her eyes she groaned.

"Who *cough* Who's this dyke you brought with you, Kisuke?" Yoruichi asked, obviously pissed off. "Is she the reason you're late, you womanizing twerp!" She knew "twerp" was not a word, but she had lost too much blood already to care. Kisuke snapped out his fan and fanned himself quckly.

"No, no, no! You're misunderstanding things here! She's a friend of Benjamin-san over there and she'll be joining him in Soul Society. Her name is Lily Copperwail." Kisuke said in a overly cheerful tone and gestured towards the blonde that was now kneeling over her and smiled as she started fondling Yoruichi's breasts. Yoruichi was tell her she would rip out her lungs if she didn't stop when she felt that the pain in her shoulder was subsiding and the paralysis fading, starting by the area she was touching.

"Sorry, but my healing methods require intimate physical contact, Yoruichi-san..." She said while her lips were curved in a constant smile and her cheeks were flushed. Her other hand started to travel down Yoruichi's belly in wide circling movements as the blonde leaned her head to her neck and Yoruichi felt her tongue on her neck, but she also felt the flow of blood stopping and the wounds on her forearm closing.

Kisuke cleared his throat broke her out of her stupor and he now noticed he was standing next to them, only his eyes visible behind his fan in the shadows of his hat. The blonde whispered in her ear that she didn't mind him watching and this if nothing else made her snap.

"Get out, Kisuke!"

"Are you sure? Maybe I should stay to make sure she doesn't –"

"OUT! And take that guy with you in case he wakes up!"

"Okay, okay..." Kisuke said and then walked backwards to Benjamin Copperwail and then started to drag him towards the ladders, not even once taking his eyes off of Yoruichi and Lily Copperwail entangled on the ground.

* * *

**Okay, I think I should explain some things. First of all: Rez used the same kind of trick on Yuzu that Bezanthume used on Chizuru's mom. I am not planning on pairing them up**... **Well, if you have any other questions, then ask me in your reviews. Now I'm a little tired and doorknob.**

**Crazy Laughter**


	19. Revelation

**So, I am back momentarily and this might be one of those chapters I publish within my own schedule. You see, I'm in the army right now and it seems like I'll be there for a year or so and I don't have enough free time to actually write the chapters... I guess, I'll have to see.**

**As proof of that fact I am drunk as I write this... we can't have beer in the army, you know... it's depressing. Beer is awesome!**

**Well, anyways; here's the sixteenth chapter of the Bleach fic with a lot of imposing OC's that a selected audience seem to love so much. Read & Review, please!  
**

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**Chapter Sixteen**

**Revealition**

He was not happy leaving Yoruichi and the woman claiming to be Lily Copperwail down in the underground training space alone, but from what he could gather from the changes in Yoruichi's reiatsu she was really being healed, so he had no reason to be against it. He had left with Benjamin Copperwail because if he hadn't Yoruichi would have beaten him half to death, but also because it gave him a rare chance to try and figure out if Benjamin Copperwail really was what he thought him to be. He was heavier than he looked, that had become painfully clear when he had dragged him up the ladders and into the shop, where his instruments were.

The first thing he had noticed was that the several attacks he had flung from his sword at him had only torn his clothes apart and the only visible sign of abuse on his body was the black oily substance that had flowed from his eyes as he had attacked. Either the damage had already healed, or there had been none to begin with. He carefully swiped some of the black oil onto a glass slate and pressed another on top of it. He placed the pair of slates into a machine that had looked like a microscope before he had added his own modifications. Now it looked like the illicit lovechild of a typewriter and a television. He pressed several keys on the machine's user interface and the sample was irradiated with intense spirit particles. The screen on top of the keyboard flickered to life and he saw the enlarged version of what had put into the machine. A string of numbers and symbols started running on the side of the screen and they indicated that the irradiation had not changed the sample's composition in anyway and it was still impossible to determine what it was. He decided to double the amount of spirit particles used and the screen went blank yet again as the machine whirred to life. It had to charge up to discharge the amount of spirit particles he had ordered it to irradiate the sample with.

As the sound of the machine charging up stopped and the sample was irradiated with the amount of spirit particles he had specified it was his luck that he had not sat down an inch closer to the machine, since it disappeared along with a loud crack, leaving only a completely spherical dent in the floor where it had been. He sat there stunned for a moment and then remembered the same kind of spherical dent down in the training space and the round hole in the wall and damned his own stupidity for not being cautious enough. Seeing Lily Copperwail entangled with Yoruichi's naked body might have affected him more than he liked to admit.

"Well, this is getting more and more interesting by the minute..." Urahara muttered as he started to fan himself. He tried not to think about how close he had come to severing his knees off of his body and succeeded rather well, but instead he kept on thinking about what exactly Lily Copperwail was doing to Yoruichi while he sat there thinking about it. Neither line of thought was very productive, but he would much rather think about the latter... Had Lily Copperwail undressed as well, or was she still wearing that school uniform while she did lecherous things to Yoruichi? Maybe he should just take a little peek...

"Urahara-san..." He heard Ururu's meek voice behind him as he was taking his first step towards the ladders leading downstairs. He jumped at the sound of her voice and then hurried to slam shut the trap door on top of the ladders. He didn't want her hearing anything downstairs and misunderstanding the meaning behind the noises Yoruichi might make.

"YES?" Urahara shouted and frightened Ururu into making herself seem even smaller than she was. "Oh, sorry, Ururu. You surprised me. What's the matter, Ururu-chan?" He asked, but when he noticed she was hesitating on the threshold of the room and glancing at Benjamin-kun's body on the floor he had a pretty good idea.

"Is he dead?" Ururu asked and directed a rather fearful eye towards him. This surprised him, since he thought Ururu was just confused as to who Benjamin Copperwail was. Had they been introduced as Yoruichi and he went down for their duel?

"No. No, he isn't dead, Ururu-chan. He's just knocked out for a while, that's all. He was actually suicidal enough to fight Yoruichi-san!" He said in the most cheerful and carefree tone he could muster. The fear in her eyes bothered him and taking care of Ururu gave him a welcome distraction from thinking about what was probably going on downstairs.

"I sensed their fight downstairs... Why would Yoruichi-san fight _him_ willingly, Urahara-san? How could she not have known?" Ururu asked in her meek and quiet voice. She sounded serious and he wouldn't doubt him like adults usually doubted children, but why would she be able to sense something about Benjamin Copperwail both he and Yoruichi couldn't? "Is Yoruichi-san okay, Urahara-san?"

"Yes... Yes, Yoruichi-san is just fine, Ururu-chan." He said as he closed the distance between them and knelt down in front of her. She was still glancing at Benjamin like she expected him to spring up and attack her. He placed his hands on her small shoulders and waited for her to look him straight in the eye. "Tell me what you know. Why are you so afraid of this man? Are you saying he's stronger than Yoruichi-san?"

"He is a monster, Urahara-san..." Ururu said in her meek voice without even a second of hesitation. Of that he had no doubt, but how was it that Ururu was so sure about it? Could she really sense something he couldn't, or was she just scared of him because of his size and something he had done? He didn't know if something had happened when they had met previously, so he couldn't rule it out for certain...

"What do you mean by that, Ururu-chan? Are you saying you can sense reiatsu from this man?" Urahara asked, Ururu's seriousness making it harder and harder to keep up his cheery tone. Ururu's eyes looked past his left shoulder and at Benjamin's unconscious body and the way her eyes bulged and her shoulders tensed up under his palms made him look back as well. He expected to see Benjamin awake and looking at them, but instead he saw a girl with long black hair about Ururu's age sitting on his chest like it was the most natural thing in the world. She waved and smiled at them and then pulled out a red apple out of the black cape she was wearing. Ururu shook herself free and ran out of the store at the sight of her, so Urahara was obviously suspicious of the girl.

"She's a jumpy one, isn't she?" The girl's voice echoed around him as she took a bite off the apple. The voice didn't come from any direction in particular, but he still glanced around him for the source of the voice. How did she do that? She was the one that had done that, right. If not, then there was another person he couldn't sense to worry about. "Don't worry, it was me. I think you call it 'telepathy' or something along those lines. _Really _makes it easier to communicate with humans."

He was usually not the one to freeze in surprising situations, but right now the absurdity of the situation had caused him to do just that. Yoruichi was downstairs being assaulted by an acquaintance of the man that had nearly killed her, Ururu was scared of said man and a girl he didn't know, or had seen before, that also seemed to be able to read his mind was eating an apple while sitting on top of said man... and the woman assaulting Yoruichi-san had copied his Benihime and he didn't know if either one was the original! He had every right to be shocked/furious!

"The one on the right, that's the real one." The girl's voice said after she took a quick glance at the canes. She sat there with her legs crossed on Benjamin's chest and stared at his bewildered expression like he was an interesting fish in an aquarium. He saw a small smile creep up on the girl's lips and couldn't help thinking that she was smiling at the image of him being a brightly coloured fish. Now he perhaps had one less reason to be furious, but it still didn't explain who the hell this girl was or how she had been able to appear on top of Benjamin in the time he had been talking to Ururu without him noticing her!

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" He was finally able to say through his shock. He stood there, looking down at a girl that looked like she couldn't be more than twelve eat an apple in the backroom of his underground candy shop. Sometimes situations just became so absurd you had to cut down most of the details to be able to deal with it while keeping your sanity. He tried his best not to think about Yoruichi being sexually assaulted hundred or so meters below, the black substance that was somehow able to disintegrate matter, the unconscious man the girl was sitting on, or that he had two Benihimes and the girl was supposedly able to discern the fake with just a glance. Yes, he _tried _not to think about those things, but he failed miserably.

"I am his sister and I am here to make sure you don't get any funny ideas while he's unconscious." The girl said and then pointed the hand with the apple on it towards him. "Fluffy is here to help." Urahara took a step to the side and turned his body 90 degrees, keeping the girl in his field of vison and noticing a tall red haired woman had been standing directly behind him. He was kind of able to sense the power emanating from this woman, unlike the girl, Benjamin and Lily. He felt something similar to reiatsu that made his brain feel feverish if he concentrated on it too much. She either was more powerful than Benjamin, or she was less adept at keeping it in check.

Or maybe the sudden and complete loss of control over his life had finally driven him over the edge he'd been teetering on for about a hundred years now and he was as crazy as a chipmunk on acid. At this point; He honestly did not know. The girl bursting out into laughter right at that minute didn't help him keeping his sanity in check, or hauling it out of the deep, deep padded canyon of insanity. He turned his head back to the girl and then moved it slightly to stop it from making contact with the half eaten apple the girl threw into the air. He heard a sound resembling a whip hitting the cushioned part of a sofa and when he turned his head back to the woman she was swallowing something and licking her lips in a very reptilian manner, her tongue only appearing for half of a second before disappearing again.

Did she just... No, she couldn't have... Where did the apple go? She couldn't just have swallowed it in one bite after grabbing it from the air. His eyes snapped to look at the woman's hands and he checked them for any signs of the juices from the apple, since the only way she could have swallowed it in one bite was if she had somehow been able to crush it or break it into pieces she then swallowed separately after stuffing them in her mouth. He saw no sign of juices from the apple on either one of her hands. It –

Wait, why was he so fixated on if she did or did not eat an apple in one gulp? So she could unhinge her jaw or something. It didn't matter to him one way or another.

"Aww... Don't stop there! I wanted to see where you would go with that. Your thoughts are rather amusing." The girl's voice cheerily sung out. He turned back to her and was rather annoyed by the bemused grin on the girl's features and the way she rested her chin on her palms. The girl pointed to a spot on the floor next to Benjamin and the woman stormed past him and sat down where she had pointed. What was the relation between these two exactly? The girl had just thrown an apple to the woman and she had seemingly caught it from mid-air and eaten it. That was something you did with a pet, so was this woman something else than she seemed to be, or was their relationship all kinds of fucked up for other reasons?

"Would you mind telling me your name, little miss?" He asked, feeling how a vein had started to pulsate on his forehead. Maybe including Benjamin Copperwail in his plan to get the Hougyouku back was a little hasty. He had turned out to be quite an unpredictable wild card and he seemed to be bringing in more trouble than he was worth.

"No." The girl's voice echoed around him as she turned to the woman and said a few words in a language he didn't understand. The woman promptly leaned down to Benjamin's face and started to lick off the black oily stuff that destroyed one of his diagnostic tools.

Indeed, many kinds and also several levels of fucked up.

Urahara Kisuke was the first to admit he was not much of a drinker (a fact Yoruichi shamelessly took advantage of when she wanted something), but right now he was desperate for a drink.

**Rukia**

There was only one thing to do in the cell she had been placed in and that was to sit and think. Trying to talk to the guards was as productive as teaching a snake calculus. They were from her brother's squad, so they followed their orders to the letter. Apparently they had not been ordered to speak to her, or had been ordered not to. She had lost almost every ounce of power when Ichigo had _stolen_ them, so they didn't even bother to put a pair of reiatsu inhibiting cuffs on her. It was not like she would do anything in her situation if she did have her powers.

Maybe she was issued such stone-faced and loyal guards because of the way she had been acting when they brought her in? She had been shaken by her brother attempting to murder Ichigo and had been shaking from terror because of the great big something that had bound and gagged her for whatever reason, so she becoming hysteric and screaming about a great big shadow was going to come after them and they had to notify all the captains to fortify their defences against it wasn't completely unexpected. Maybe brother just didn't want rumours about her losing her mind getting out into the public, hence the mute and deaf guards? She wouldn't put it past him; actually she expected it from him.

The chair had been facing the wall when she came in and she had not moved it from that position, since she really didn't see the point. There were only three walls and the bars and she didn't really want to watch her guards standing there and staring straight in front of them right now. Had that thing with the huge shadow thing really happened, or had been just some kind of hallucination? No, Renji and her brother had both been there and brother wasn't the kind of person to start swinging his sword if he wasn't absolutely sure there was adequate reason to do so. He had obviously thought there had been something there and she remembered seeing him hand something over to the 12th division before she had her nervous breakdown. It had been real, she shouldn't delude herself into thinking anything else.

"You two can go wait outside, Mitsubishi-kun, Volvo-kun." A soothing male voice said with the undertone of authority. Rukia turned on the chair and saw the two guards glance at each other and then follow the order of Captain Aizen. "Good day, Kuchiki-san. I hope they've treated you well enough?" Aizen said and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Aizen-taichou! Why are you – I mean: They've been rather kind. It is surprising for you to visit me. How may I help you?" Rukia corrected herself after realizing who she was talking to. Right now she was imprisoned and had shamed her brother's name, so the least she could do was to be civil. She had found the floorboards extremely intriguing ever since Captain Aizen entered and she blurted out her rude greeting, but now she had to look back up to him, since the silence was starting to make her even more nervous. He still had that reassuring smile on his face.

"You don't have to be so formal around me, Kuchiki-san. I am the rude one here, since I have an agenda behind visiting you. I would have brought you something, but that is against the rules and I wouldn't put your guards in the predicament of choosing between mine and your brother's orders." He paused and after a moment of silence Rukia nodded slowly. She was a prisoner, so why did it matter if he was rude in asking anything of her? Wasn't that his job, to deal with her? "I would like to ask you some questions to clarify a few things about the report your brother filed. Is that okay?"

"Yes, fine with me, Aizen-taichou." Rukia said while turning the chair to face him and then sitting on it. Aizen nodded and then cleared his throat while pulling out a sheet of paper from the inside of his captain's jacket. Those things had pockets?

"According to the report you were kidnapped, forced out of your gigai by some manner of mind control and then taken a small park area within Karakura town where you were bound next to a tree. Is this correct, Kuchiki-san?" Aizen read without glancing at the paper in his hand. Rukia nodded and Aizen turned his eyes to the paper and then read aloud. "'The victim described the assailant as a mass of shadows taken physical form and could not discern any other details from it than it's approximate size and form' and then he reported that the assailant you described was seven to eight feet tall and shaped like a tall man wearing a hooded garb of some sort. Is this correct as well, Kuchiki-san?"

"Yes, as far as my memory serves." Hearing Aizen list out what she had claimed like that made it sound crazy even to her ears and the urge to start making excuses was rising, but there wasn't really that much to add so she kept on fighting the urge. Why did Aizen tell the guards to wait outside? It was probable that they would not see or hear of the report, but it was a public document and any shinigami could access it, so they were bound to hear of her little freak out sooner or later. Could it be that there was something in that report that would make it classified, other than her brother's influence?

"Then your brother goes to great detail to explain that he fought off another assailant, one that did not fit your description and that was completely invisible. He describes it being six feet tall at most, because of the strands of hair he cut off of said assailant. He reported there was no sign of an assailant by your description in the scene, so he concluded there probably were two assailants, or that you only deluded yourself into seeing something that wasn't there. It does sound better that you were kidnapped by a demonic shadow giant, than an invisible entity with golden hair, as it turns out." Aizen finished and then put the piece of paper back into the inner pocket of his captain's jacket. Rukia was about to stand up and defend herself, when Aizen raised a hand to stop her. "I didn't come here to disprove your story. It is something of a stretch to believe, but there are certain details that need an explanation." Rukia sat back down on her chair and nodded as a sign that she understood.

"In the report Kuchiki-taichou mentions that you were bound, but then he did not bring the said rope back as evidence. I asked him earlier about this and he answered that it must have been some kind of binding spell, but I wonder... What do you think, Kuchiki-san?" Aizen finished and looked at her with a serious expression. What the hell was he talking about? The rope? WHY? Had Aizen gone insane or was he really that bored that he wanted to see something here, when clearly there wasn't? She was about to voice her concerns when she finally caught on to what Aizen was saying. The ropes she had been bound with had been as normal as they could be and they only kept her in place because of the way she was bound, but then had disintegrated as the knots were undone. That was unlike any kind of binding spells she knew.

"Now that I think about it... I think it's certain that there were two assailants. I think I witnessed the one that kidnapped me being surprised by the other. He actually said something about the other one seeming cheery. Then it acted as if it was agitated and disappeared. I never saw the other, but I suppose it was the one my brother fought. The rope disintegrates back into a pile of soil when the knots were undone. The one to undo them was my y gigon pill, so it makes sense it's not mentioned in the report, since the 12th division hasn't examined the data it recorded yet." Rukia answered and now that Aizen had brought them to her attention some things did clear up in her head. So there had been another assailant. It did explain some of the things she had been wondering about up until now.

"I see... that does answer a few questions. You don't remember anything else?" Aizen said, still in a serious tone. Rukia raked her brain and was unable to come up with anything else that wouldn't be in the report itself so she shook her head. Aizen stood there for a while looking at her in the eye, either deep in thought or trying to determine if she was hiding anything. After a minute she started to feel uncomfortable. Aizen finally broke eye contact and called the guards back in after telling her it would be fine and he'd do anything within his power to bring this unfortunate situation to an end.

After he left the guards took their earlier places and stared right in front of them again. After a minute or two she turned her chair back towards the opposite wall and sat there. There was nothing to do but worry about her future, but at least there was someone like Aizen on her side.

**Bezanthume**

"_Why do you keep pestering me, Prince? I told you I'm not interested and that's final!" She shouted and quickened her pace. The tall man following behind her had no trouble keeping up with her and did that annoy the hell out of her._

"_**Because I like the challenge and I thought I told you to stop calling me that. I'm not a prince and never will be." **_

"_Challenge? Oh, fuck you and your unfounded confidence! I've told you a thousand times before that I am NOT INTERESTED! How long will it take for you to realize that? You nobles born severely retarded, or are you just especially talented in being stupid?" The woman spun around to face the man tailing her and she met his glowing red eyes that towered over her without even a hint of fear. The man only smirked and his amusement only infuriated her even more._

"_**Has anyone told you that you look absolutely stunning when you're angry?" **__He said and leaned closer to her. The woman moved too fast for him to dodge the uppercut to the jaw and he was knocked back by the force of the hit. His jaw shattered, but reconstructing itself in good time. He glared at the woman and the pain made it hard for him to keep his temper in check. His eyes flashed and he repositioned his jaw, so he could talk again. __**"So, is that a no, or what?"**_

"_AAAAHGH! WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM? I don't have time for all your bullshit, Prince! Some of us have real problems to deal with, you know, so FUCK YOU AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" She was making a scene and she knew it, but no-one didn't want to be the one to ask them to stop with the so called Prince's dangerous temper well known._

"_**Would you stop calling me that?" **__The man said and closed the distance between them while digging for something from one of the inner pockets of his coat. The woman took a stance and was ready to react if he planned on avenging the jab to his jaw. Instead he pulled about a dozen of things that looked like red emeralds. He held out his arm towards the woman and she looked between them and his eyes, clearly confused. __**"Come on, take them. They're yours; I'll get the rest soon as I find more of the fuckers."**_

"_What are you – Wait, those couldn't be... No, it's only been three days..." The woman muttered and took one of the red emeralds in her hands and was surprised how heavy it was. They were most definitely not emeralds, but it wasn't like she'd ever seen the hearts of stone hydras anyways, so she wouldn't know._

"_**It's really messy business ripping these things out, but my fire helps cleaning them of most of the sticky stuff, so... there you go." **__The man said nonchalantly and dropped the red emeralds to the ground. The woman just stared at him for a minute before saying anything. After a while she seemed to relax and looked up to his eyes with disbelief._

"_You know I was kidding about the stone hydra thing, right? I never thought you'd find twenty of them, or go through the trouble of killing 12 of them! I only said that to get you off my back for a minute... but do you know how valuable those things are? Do you really just want to give them to me?"_

"_**Yes." **__The man simply said and a slightly confused smirk returned to his face. It was clear that he had not been aware that the hearts were worth anything, but there had been no hesitation in his voice either. The woman thought that he had done all this just because she had asked him to and that was kind of impressive in its own way._

"_This... This only proves that you're an idiot! Nothing more, nothing le –"_

"_**You want them or not? I know how much you'd need them and I'm not asking anything in return for them." **__The woman looked at the man with red eyes in surprise and he just shrugged his shoulders and handed the emeralds to the woman. __**"Let's just say it's a part of a new strategy, but I am not asking anything in exchange for these."**_

"_You're awfully stupid for a prince, Prince." The woman muttered and still hesitated on accepting the emeralds. There was the problem of how the hell would she carry all of them to think about and if she were hailing something as expensive as those through the streets she would be a walking target for thieves and other opportunistic cut-throats. The man just smiled and leaned in closer to her._

"_**If I'm a prince then you're a Princess –**_

The broken kaleidoscope of colours and sounds was broken by unimaginable pain and hate. He hated the pain and everything that had caused it; he also hated the things driving it away and trying to save him. He hated absolutely everything. He hated his own weakness for shunning his own salvation away. He wanted to die and be destroyed, he wanted to be forgotten and disappear before his pain caught up with him. He wanted to die, before he was able to live long enough to feel pain. He didn't want to live and suffer! He wanted to die and be at peace in oblivion!

It took him a long while to hear and recognize the voice calling out to him. When he actually could pin a face to the voice he started to really struggle over control over his own body. He had once again lost consciousness and now it was even harder to regain it, so he would have to be concerned about this matter. If this ever happened during real battle there would be grave consequences. He would have to deal with it as soon as possible. Preferably before he was forced to face anyone he had to kill to achieve his goal. It would be pretty unconventional if he were to collapse during the battle against Aizen for example, he would definitely take advantage of the situation.

"Brother, wake up, you asshole! I'm lonely! All these humans are making me nauseous! Well, one of them was kinda fun and helped me, but still... wake up!" He had to be shocked by his sister's statement, since he had no idea what she was talking about and the images flooding inside his mind were either delusion or reality... and he didn't know which one he preferred. Had that been another one of the memories he had lost? Why couldn't he remember anything about the woman he had been pursuing?

"**And why don't I have a headache?" **Bezanthume wondered out loud as he sat up and opened his eyes. He had been in pain as his "dream" had been cut short, but now there was only a slight pressure behind his eyes, like they were about to bulge out of their sockets, Uncomfortable, but not painful per say. After he sat up he noticed the form of Rezaliel sprawled on his legs. She had seemingly been sitting on his chest when he had suddenly sat up and had toppled over as he woke up. She hurried back on her feet and launched towards him, either to hug him or hit him. Either way he reached out with his right hand and placed it on her forehead to keep her away. He looked around where he had woken up this time while Rezaliel struggled to free herself and realized it was the back of Urahara Kisuke's shop. He noted Urahara Kisuke himself sitting a respectable distance away from Rezaliel and him. He seemed to be desperate for a drink and it was obvious that Rezaliel had been toying with his mind without him realizing it. He shot a mean look at Rezaliel and she stopped struggling and sat down looking defeated. Urahara Kisuke's thoughts were freed from the loop they had been trapped in and his snapped up in attention.

"**Welcome back, Urahara Kisuke. It seems that my sister has been messing with your mind. Now, I see that you know about what I am so let's cut the crap. I know the reason you want me to accompany Kurosaki Ichigo is because I am a wild card that Aizen probably hasn't prepared for, or am I wrong?" **Bezanthume asked Urahara Kisuke and didn't bother on disguising his voice anymore. The spell he had used to change the colour of his eyes had stopped working when he had lost consciousness and there seemed to be no point in disguising it from Urahara Kisuke now. Having him guessing what the hell he was could only work against him at this point; since their interests coincided it would be more lucrative to let him know at least a part of the truth. Urahara Kisuke narrowed his eyes and glanced at Rezaliel with amazement in his mind. He thought it was amazing that such a seemingly small child could control his mind with such ease.

"Yes, I had known you were not human from the first time I met you, but the fact that you probably were a demon occurred to me only lately and my suspicions were confirmed by the incident downstairs. Your sudden appearance in Karakura town means that you are the one that caused the temporal quake now 4 days ago, I presume? Did you come from the future or a parallel world?" Urahara Kisuke said and hid behind his fan while kept both of his canes at his side. It seemed like he was still unable to discern them from each other. Bezanthume shouldn't be surprised that Urahara Kisuke had the means to detect his appearance from an alternate timeline, but it was surprising he had been able to piece it together.

"**Yeah, that was my doing. I am currently under a contract that dictated the to this specific time period. You must understand though, that my arrival here has already changed the future that was predetermined for this world already? Any knowledge I have of the future I come from is probably of no use you." **He waved his hand in the air as he spoke and he noticed he didn't have his gauntlets on anymore and turned to Filia. _**"Filia, go fetch me my coat and the wrist guards from downstairs. The wrist guards should have Shihouin Yoruichi's blood on them, so you should be able to find them." **_Filia nodded and walked over to the hidden trap door where the ladders were. Urahara Kisuke reached for his cane was ready to stop her when Bezanthume raised a hand to stop him.

"**Relax; she's just going down to fetch some stuff for me. I just don't feel comfortable leaving Yoruichi alone with them. Well, actually, we could all just move this conversation down there. I don't like cramped spaces." **He said and then thought out the spell to make his body intangible. Just before his head went through the floor he saw Urahara Kisuke'seyes widen in surprise and him starting to get up to rush down to the space under the store after Filia. There was no way in hell he could force his way past her. He himself took out his wings and used them to guide himself down to where Lilith was taking pictures of Yoruichi as she slept after the intense session of "healing", occasionally repositioning her. She glanced at him while repositioning Yoruichi yet again.

"So, you decided to tell these guys what you are. What about Kurosaki and such?" Lilith asked, not really sounding surprised and rather preoccupied in taking as many pictures of Yoruichi before she showed any signs of waking up. He had no idea where Lilith had acquired the Polaroid camera, but was sure that it at most borrowed from someone, whether they knew it or not. Lilith was very much against stealing.

"**Nah, it's probably more fun if they don't know. It seems like even Yoruichi is unable to sense my power, so I will probably have a chance to beat up Kurosaki Ichigo at some point. Did you feed on her to knock her out?" **Lilith glanced in the direction of the ladders leading up above when Filia crashed down without using the ladders. Lilith suddenly started to snap pictures of Yoruichi as fast she could and when Rezaliel dropped down behind Filia. She clearly didn't want to confront Rezaliel, even with him there to protect her.

"Yeah, a little, but it's still mostly because of the blood loss. She should be regaining consciousness any minute now and I really don't want to be here when that happens." As if on cue Yoruichi shifted in her sleep at that second and moaned. Lilith snapped a final image and then hurried to fly away. Either she knew that Urahara Kisuke knew about her, or she just didn't care. She was gone way before Rezaliel attempted to lunge at his mid-section. He dodged at the last second and Rezaliel was barely able to land on her feet. She turned to him and screamed obscenities at him, changing between their language and, language the people around them could understand and other languages none of them could. He ignored her and turned to Urahara who was staring at his wings.

"**Yeah, I got wings. It's more comfortable for me to have them out, since you already know what I am." **Bezanthume sated and hoped there would not be any more questions. Urahara Kisuke was naturally curious about how he could have hidden them until now and Bezanthume really was not in the mood to answer those kinds of questions; it would take too long. **"So, to clear things up; I tried to get to Kuchiki Rukia before Soul Society did, but there were... circumstances that made a mess out of that plan. Then I thought that tagging along with Ichigo and Co. was the next best thing, but that seems to be rather tedious. I can wait ten days, but wouldn't it be better if we did some surveillance before we rush in there?" **Bezanthume said and practically could hear the gears inside Urahara Kisuke's mind turning. He glanced over at Rezaliel and noted that she was sitting facing the wall and was pouting. It would take some convincing to have her do anything.

"Yes, of course it would, but Soul Society is not that easy to get into and Aizen would know the moment you step into Seireitei. You might really be wild cards he couldn't have prepared for, but if you make yourself known now, doesn't that work against us?" Urahara Kisuke said and taking the facts that he knew into account it was a rather logical assumption. Bezanthume had seen it and been there, listening as Aizen went over every little detail of his plan in his head over and over. His plan will of course change as new variables arise, but they should still be valid information. Now he would just have to know if Aizen's actions know are different from what he did before in any important way... There was just that his contract with Inoue Orihime prohibited him from leaving her vicinity. A few kilometres or so didn't have any effect on him, but if he were to go to a different dimension that was not adjacent to this one, then he would be forced back. He couldn't do it himself, he knew better than to trust something like this to Lilith, Filia lacked the ability to independent inter-dimensional travel, so that leaves...

"What the hell are you doing?" Shihouin Yoruichi shouted out in surprise as she woke up to find Rezaliel poking and groping her breasts. She immediately slapped the girl's hands away and would have turned into a cat if she hadn't been pressed back onto the ground by Rezaliel. He saw Shihouin Yoruichi's surprise on her face and saw Urahara Kisuke's curiosity in his mind. The fact that was confusing them was probably the fact that she was using only one finger on her chest to do so. They should know better than to judge her by her appearance.

"**Do not worry, Shihouin Yoruichi. My sister was only intrigued by the size of your bust, but I assure you it was in a completely different way than me, or the nymphomaniac angel that healed you." **He turned back to Kisuke and had to smirk at the worry in his eyes. He knew it was childish, but he couldn't help himself from making the situation even worse. **"She can turn into a cat, you know." **Rezaliel's eyes lit up immediately and she released Shihouin Yoruichi.

"Do it! Do it now! Turn into a cat!" She exclaimed excitedly and let Shihouin Yoruichi go. She jumped away from Rezaliel and did turn into a cat. Beanthume didn't read her thoughts, but he thought she was just starting to feel uncomfortable being naked for so long. She was probably trying to get away from Rezaliel, but by the look in her eyes when she found herself ensnared by Rezaliel's slender arms. "Wow! You are so small and fuzzy and just adorable!" She said while squeezing Shihouin Yoruichi against her chest and rubbing her chin against her fur.

"**Okay, now I know that you don't have the means to get to Soul Society under Aizen's radar and there are certain details that tether me to this side of the... line." **Bezanthume said and was glad to see that Urahara Kisuke was already figuring out where he was going with his words. Rezaliel was completely unaware about their conversation as she in turn squeezed Yoruichi against her chest and in turn flailed her around by her front paws as she danced around Bezanthume and Urahara. **"But my sister has no ties to keep her here and she has the means to get there and dig up what we need... and undoubtedly cause some mischief while doing so. Rez!"**

"Kitty, kitty, cute little kitty, you're all soft and fluffy!" Rez sang out loud as she swung Yoruichi around while spinning on her heels and dancing.

"**Rez, listen to me!" **Bezanthume shouted a little louder, but still not losing his temper.

"Kitty, kitty, cute little kitty, your insides are soft and messy!" Rez sung out and clutched Shihouin Yoruichi against her cheek. She had a shiny new toy and playing with it was now taking all her attention, so Bezanthume's next yell surprised her.

"**REZ, COME HERE!" **Bezanthume yelled and it was clear she heard him since Yoruichi was finally able to escape from her clutches. Her step was swaying left to right, but she seemed very determined on getting as far away as possible from Rezaliel. Rezaliel walked over to Bezanthume with her eyes finding the ground extremely interesting and wondering what could it have been that she had done to anger her brother. Bezanthume was aware of this and already regretted shouting at her. He placed a hand on her head and the fact that she tried to flinch away hurt him deeply. He couldn't have been abusive before, could he? He had no memory of doing so and the act felt appalling to him, but he still didn't know it for sure. He was sure to ruffle her hair as gingerly as he could and then lifted her chin for her to meet his eyes. There were tears just waiting to run in her eyes and they never had looked so blue and big.

"You're... You're not mad at me?" She asked and only glanced at his eyes occasionally. She was fidgeting in place and he could feel her shaking under the oversized cloak. Bezanthume wasn't sure if he wanted to remember what had happened for the act of him shouting to trigger such a reaction. Either he couldn't see into Rezaliel's mind, or she just had strong enough defences in place for his casual and half unintentional probing not to break through.

"**No. No, of course I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry for shouting at you, but now you need to listen to me, okay?" **She looked up to him warily and after a moment of looking at him suspiciously she quickly wiped her eyes and her posture straightened up again. **"I need you to do something for me, Rez. I need you to go to a place called Soul Society and find out everything you can about the movements of Sousuke Aizen, Ichimaru Gin and Kaname Tousen. You are to be careful not to come into direct contact with them, but other than that, you can use any means you deem necessary. You can get the information you require to get there from Urahara Kisuke here."**

"Okay!" Rezaliel shouted out without hesitation. She sped off from Bezanthume and lunged at Urahara Kisuke, who had no time to react because of the small girl's surprising speed. The way she moved should have been impossible, but it seemed like she only hopped lightly as the world around her twisted to hurl her forward. At least that's what Urahara Kisuke thought and he wasn't far off. Rezaliel sped towards Urahara Kisuke and he was only able to start using shunpo to dodge her when she slid through his torso. Urahara Kisuke's eyes widened in surprise, but he wasn't really surprised per say. Rezaliel landed softly on her feet and then did an execrated salute towards Bezanthume. She then proceeded to do a ballet spin in place and when her cloak covered her completely the fabric her form twisted into itself and she disappeared without a sound or a melodramatic flash.

"**Okay, what's next?"**

**Hitsugaya Toushirou**

Toushirou wasn't the kind of guy to pass on his duties and there was no non-influenced cases of him neglecting them. The influence in question guessed at, but every single member of his squad knew the main culprit and the person in question had caused him to take a walk before he were to "accidentally" freeze half of his own squad... and all because of one busty freeloader, a _drunk _freeloader. He was too kind for his own good, way too kind for his own good.

"That is..." He heard a feminine child's voice say from somewhere behind him and it sounded like the voice was closing in on him fast. He was bringing his hand to his sword when there was a black shadow directly above him and he saw two slender white hands reach out from it and grab his sword before him. The black glad figure continued on moving forward and used the momentum to draw his sword from scabbard on his back. This was the downside to being so short and having such a big sword. "So cool!"

The figure in black landed a far ways in front of him and he noticed that the figure was about his height, so either they were short, or a child like him. His expectations were both confirmed and shattered when the figure shook off the hood that hid their face. He had excepted for them to be a girl and for them to be young, but he had not excepted for them to be his age and absolutely beautiful. Her lips were naturally cherry red and her cheeks were flushed from excitement and possibly physical exertion and it gave her features a glow that made him stare and blush furiously when he realized that he was. She was holding his sword unexpectedly lightly, considering how thin and slender her hands looked. She was slowly tilting the blade against the light and the stray rays of light that hit her eyes made their blue jump out and sparkle. He noticed that her hair was as dark as the cloak she was wearing when a strand slid to cover her face. The contrast of her black hair against her white skin was -

He should stop staring... and get his sword back.

"Give me my sword back. That is a shinigami's personal property and it doesn't matter how high nobility you –"

"No, I'm not done with it yet. Buzz off, blondie." The girl said nonchalantly. She was obviously used to getting her way, so his suspicions on her being a noble were all but confirmed. No one other than nobles in all of Soul Society acted like this with a _captain _of the 13 protection squads. He thought about lunging for his sword and taking it out of her hands by force, but he could cause a political incident by "assaulting" a member of a noble family.

"The sword of a shinigami is a dangerous weapon and the swords of captains can repel foreign handlers of their own will. Now give me my sword back, when I'm still asking nicely." Toushirou was able to keep his voice calm through, but if she didn't give his sword back, then he would just snatch it back. The girl ignored his words completely and raised his sword above her head and lowered herself into an awkward looking stance. He was not going to let some random noble swing his sword, no matter how pretty they were, so he lunged at her and held a hand out for his sword. The girl turned her eyes to him and their blueness might have caused him to pause, since he only saw the black fabric of her cloak move below his outstretched arm and felt a firm slap on his behind that sent him stumbling forward. He turned back towards the girl as soon as he stabled his footing.

"Now, now, don't be rude, blondie." The girl said as she raised the sword again above her head. She must have used the side of the blade to slap him on the behind as she passed. She was fast if nothing else. "You'll get your turn. You should learn how to share by your age."

"Give Hyourinmaru back, you insufferable br –"

"You gave your sword a name? Aww, that's so cute, blondie!" She cooed in a mocking voice and then proceeded to take a swing at the wall she was facing with his sword. She was able to slice a clean cut halfway in the wall, but then the blade got stuck. She pulled the sword out by twisting the blade out of the wall and then brought the blade to her side with the blade pointing behind her and to the side.

"What the hell are you doing?" He shouted and this time the girl turned her head towards him. She looked surprised he would ask such a stupid question.

"What does it look like; I'm hitting a wall with your awesome shiny sword, which you gave a stupid name like Hyourinmaru." She said and then turned back to the wall. This time he jumped in using shunpo and the girl shouldn't have been able to see him coming, but his arms closed around thin air again. He turned his head left and right and there was no sign of the girl, so he turned his head upwards and took a step back and there she was; holding his sword on her shoulder with one hand and the other resting on her hip leisurely. How the hell could a spoiled little noble brat dodge a captain's shunpo?

"Now, that was just plain rude, blon –"

"Would you stop calling me that, you spoiled little brat!" Toushirou yelled out before he could stop himself. There was the chance that she would go and cry to her parents he'd be charged with assaulting a noble or other such bullshit, but right then and there he just didn't care. The girl was the most graceful, fragile and beautiful looking thing he had ever seen, but she was also just as annoying. "Now give me my sword back before I take it from you by force! I'm sick of playing your games!"

The girl's eyes widened and again Toushirou again had a hard time staring into them without blushing or looking away, How the hell can her eyes be so freaking _blue _and huge? There should be a law against having such enchanting eyes... Oh fuck, he was starting to think like... like... he didn't know what, but he didn't like it! He should stop adding favourable adjectives to her features, even if it was just in his mind. He turned his attention back to the girl's features and noticed that now she was smiling a crooked mischievous smile and her posture had gotten even more confident. She was up to something and he had a feeling it wasn't good, for him at least.

"If you want your _Hyourinmaru _back so bad, then you'll just have to..." She said in a challenging voice while leaning forward and then held a pause and revealed a perfect set of pearly white teeth. Toushirou thought he saw fangs at the sides of her wide condescending smile, but it must have been his imagination. "Catch me, blondie!" She shouted and then turned around and jumped away. He was left there staring at the point where she had been a second before in awe. She was really going to go with playing _catch _with a captain of the 13 protection squads? Even through his astonishment he didn't forget that the girl had his sword and he jumped up on the roof she had looked down to him mere seconds ago and noticed the girl speeding through the roofs of Seireitei with speed that should be impossible for any non-shinigami in Soul Society. She was waving Hyourinmaru around haphazardly as she went and this only fuelled him as he dashed in pursuit of her.

He wasn't even aware of the broad smile on his face.

* * *

**See that? Don't tell me you didn't see this coming, just don't! Having Rez interact with the child that is so much in a hurry to grow up was just too much fun for me to pass up on. Oh, don't tell me you don't agree with Hitugaya Toushirou seeing the fun in the simple play of catch. He's a child, so of course he does. Physical exertion is fun defined for children and if they have a goal to accomlish, then that's all the better.**

**Well, I'm just anxious on writing their interaction again, but I better stop it here, since this is getting rather long of a chapter. R&R everyone!  
**


	20. Soul Eater Omake

**SORRY! Sorry for doing this again, but this is something I whipped in about a week in a fit of boredom (and Soul Eater induced nostalgia). I AM working on Chapter seventeen, but I got distracted. But on the bright side my civil duty is over and my oublishing schedule should improve somewhat.**

**Well, enjoy**

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* * *

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**Soul Eater Omake**

"_What are you?" _The boy shouted and shot at the calm figure without mercy, but there seemed to be no effect at all. The figure was something he had been commissioned to stop and its appearance had surprised him at first, but now he knew that it was something he had no understanding of and he might not be able to win this fight. This would have been something Kidd could have lived with and worked around, but this was just...

To be completely ignored by his opponent was something he hadn't expected and his attacks having no effect absolutely absurd. _That _would have been something he could have possibly lived with and somehow work around as well, but for this thing to keep killing people and eating their souls with no care in the world with him there trying to stop it was horrifying. How could this thing not be affected at all by anything he had tried? The concentrated bullets of his soul wave were always met with a red flash of light and the thing seemed not to even notice it. When he tried hand to hand combat it was either able to dodge him, or it felt like he was only hitting through air when his attack went through its body.

"STOP!" He shouted when the thing jumped on another human on the street of the town he had been sent on. It was a girl that was around ten years old and the thing had tackled her to the ground and ripped her throat open with one fluid and obviously practiced motion before he could catch up to it. It calmly stepped away from the body and waited for the soul to appear, so it could eat it. Was this what was a Kishin?

"_Kidd... Kidd, nothing has worked so far. As much as I hate to say this, but there is nothing we can do here." _Liz said to him and he could feel the anger and frustration she was feeling. He glanced at the gun in his left hand. He didn't want to admit it, but half the time he didn't know which sister was in which hand, but that was the reason he had chosen them; _symmetry, _beautiful, perfect _symmetry._

"Hah! Now that's interesting. And here I thought they were just guns." The thing said and it had closed the distance between them in the time he glanced at Liz. He tried to jump back, but the thing tripped him and he fell down on his ass. The first time it paid any attention to him and it was controlling the fight with such ease. Its red eyes shone maliciously as the smile stayed on its lips.

"Make them turn into their... _physical forms? _I want to see them." The tone in which it said it left no room for interpretation. It took a step towards him and he tried to jump away again. The reaction was more brutal and faster than before and Kidd noticed that it had kicked his knee from the side with surprising power and at least dislocated it. He was now unable to get away fast enough. "I want to see their physical forms." It repeated with the smile fading from its lips.

"_Kidd! Kidd, we have to get out of –"_

"_**Shut it, bitch and materialize already." **_It said and Kidd could feel how the words made his soul tremble. There was such an inhuman kind of power behind those words that the thing in front of him looked even more inhuman. When there was no immediate reaction to its words it struck out with its hand and grabbed his face with power that shouldn't be possible with such small arms.

"Tell them to turn into who they are. Now." It hissed and slammed his head to the ground. He wondered if it really thought that he would endanger his partners from just a simple beating, when he felt how the hand holding his head down started to heat up. "Hurry now or I'll sear your head off and figure it out myself."

**Maka**

She had always been a prodigy when it came to sensing souls, Soul Perception as it was called. She could see souls as different coloured orbs inside and around people when she concentrated enough. Her ability to sense them from a distance was also exceptional and now that was what was bothering her.

She knew she was sensing something and she had tried to pinpoint it ever since she first became aware of it. She wasn't even sure what it was or where it was, but she knew that it was getting closer. She felt a presence, a constant and powerful presence, but that was about it. She didn't know if it was a witch on the outskirts of town, or a powerful Kishin egg in the verge of stepping over the line, or if it was just Doctor Stein doing some kind of experiment

"Maka? Oi, Maka! Are you alright?" Soul asked and nudged her roughly. Oh, and she had become aware of this presence a minute ago in class and had been staring off into space since then. She must have looked rather stupid with her mouth gaping open like that. She wasn't sure if the presence was even anything dangerous. It could just be indigestion from lunch from all she knew. She decided to leave it alone for now. It was really nothing really, just a feeling, that's all...

Even though it was a bad one.

**Kidd**

"Make them turn into humans!" A intense blast of heat scorched his face "I WANT TO SEE IT!" It struck him in the chest with its free hand and with a blast of red light he could feel his ribs breaking. How could it have so much strength and give so little of it away. All he could feel was an ominous feeling when it curled up its fists that intensified at the height of emotion. It kept on pounding his flesh with those fists that were covered in hardened iron.

"_Kidd! Please stop this! He only wants us to turn into our human forms! Don't kill yourself over this!" _Liz shouted at him through his soul and he only gripped them tighter. If he kept them in their weapon forms with his soul wave, then this thing couldn't harm them. _"If you die then what will we do?" _The thing suddenly stopped mincing him with the mean looking gauntlets and just sat there on his chest breathing heavily.

"Oh, that's cold of you. They're both crying and you still won't give in..." It licked some of the blood that had splattered on its face and then cringed. It muttered something about the taste and just sat there on his lap, completely ignoring him as it seemed to be deep in thought. He raised both of his pistols and pressed them straight onto its face. Let's see it defend against a point blank shot of his soul wave in its face!

_BHOOM!BHOOM!BHOOM!BHOOM!_

He poured every last ounce of strength he had left into those four shots and he felt the weight of the accursed thing leave his chest. Patty and Liz both cheered and threw crude insults at it. The smoke cleared and the thing had disappeared altogether. He had finally been able to deal some damage to it, but he didn't think it was dead yet, whatever it was. He got up on his feet and tried to sense the raging inferno of flames that seemed to be its soul. It was so unlike anything he had seen so far he refused to think of it as anything even near human. It was a _thing _capable of unspeakable cruelty.

"_Kidd! Kidd, what are you doing? Stop! Stop, please!" _Patty screamed frantically and Kidd's attention snapped to his right hand that was now extended to his side and he had changed the way he was holding Patty to the traditional way to hold a gun without being aware of it. He felt how a tremendous amount of unfamiliar power flooded into Patty from him and saw how his fist clenched to pull the trigger. There was a click when the safety pin on the side of Patty's weapon form turned on, but the flood of power into her had not stopped and it was building up in her cartridge chamber. If she kept on trying to suppress it, it would destroy her.

A slow and relaxed laugh reached his ears. It sounded like the thing that had been beating him just a moment ago. It came from inside his soul and he immediately wondered why Liz and Patty had not noticed it. It was obvious the unfamiliar power flowing into Patty came from the thing that had beaten him moments ago. The way he was able to sink into his soul and control his body was a mystery, but that's what it had done. The energy building within Patty reached a critical point where she would hurt herself by keeping it contained and his finger pulled the trigger at last. The feeling of all that built up power shooting out through Patty was indescribable and it looked like he was shooting out a miniature sun as he was blinded by the light, but he could not look away. The projectile he had just shot out blasted through the house he shot it towards leaving only a hole the size of a bowling ball. He breathed a sigh of relief, since if it was only going to pierce through buildings there was less of a chance it would kill anyone. It would set things in flames, since he had felt extreme heat radiating from it when it was shot.

"Patty, are you alright?" He could feel that Patty's weapon form felt hot against his hand and at first couldn't hear her, since her thoughts were so chaotic.

"_That was... That felt amazing! Where did that come from, Kidd? Can we do it again?" _That was just like her; ignore nearly killing god knows how many people and get caught up on how amazing it felt. She was selfish whenever it suited h –

His thoughts were cut short when the part of town he was still pointing his right hand towards was bathed in blinding light and then erupted into flames. It was not an explosion, there was only a sudden wave of heat that struck him, but it barely made him take a step back. He took a step back purely from shock. Was this from the projectile he shot a couple of seconds ago? Why was there such a long pause between the two then?

"**That's because I made it so it wouldn't actually destroy everything right away. The delay and the distribution of energy just make it more... interesting." **The thing was definitely inside him and he could feel how it was smiling that sadistic smile. **"Just listen." **

He stared at the fire and the roaring flames were loud, but they were not loud enough to cover the screams. People were screaming in pain and in desperation. Mothers were calling out their children and husbands desperately called out to their families. Pain, despair, heartbreak and anger were heavy in the air and he could feel it all. The fire had not killed as many people he had thought at first and the wall of flame he saw before him was to ensure no one could escape alive as the fire spread. Patty was wailing, Liz was sobbing and shaking from anger and Kidd was just terrified.

"**But then again..." **The voice was inhuman and it was clear it was enjoying this. **"We have to think of symmetry here, right?" **His left arm rose up and Liz desperately screamed for him to stop. He didn't want to commit genocide either, but his body wasn't listening to him anymore. And the feeling of the immense and godlike power flowing through him made all of his pain and doubt melt away. The wounds and broken bones the thing had inflicted were burning away and he had never felt so free and omnipotent, even though he was a god of death. It was natural for him to live up to his name, right? It was not unnatural, it was his birth-right, it was his nature, he was the one that decided who lived and who died.

And of course it had to be symmetric. Killing a third of the town was in no way symmetric, killing half was just unthinkable, ugly and unsightly! For there to be symmetry in this ravaged city and for it to regain its beauty once again there was only one way for it to be accomplished. It was so obvious he felt a little stupid for not seeing it before.

For the great balance of life and death in this town to be perfect and exactly symmetric _everyone_ had to die.

"**Glad you're finally seeing things my way. Now, let's show these two ladies a good time. They seem to be in low spirits."**

"Yes..." His teeth were clenched together and his lips had curved up into a wide smirk. He knew he looked like a maniac, but he was so full of energy that he could just burst. He had to release it somehow. And he had two guns that shot out his soul wave in his hands. "That's just perfect. Gehehe... Geh! Skittering around, making ugly, asymmetric shapes while living out their meagre lives. Aah, I feel so good! Why was I so wound up before on everything being perfect? I can just make everything perfect. I am god! I am death! I can't hear you! I can't hear you! SCREAM!"

That they did.

**Maka**

A few hours ago the feeling she had been having for the whole day had disappeared and she had felt more relieved than she wanted to admit. It made her think that it might have actually been something important after all and she considered on asking Stein-sensei about it. It had felt so... foreign; violent and merciless, but also weak and playful. She was probably reading way too much into it, but it had stayed at the back of her mind for hours, so she had had time to analyze it, even though unconsciously. She was curious if Stein had been able to feel it too, but he had not shown up for class and it had been independent study. It was right about the time to pack up and leave the school without making a fuzz about it when Kidd stormed in, or rather, stumbled in hurriedly. It took all of them a good minute to actually recognize him as Kidd. He was barely able to stay on his feet, since he was shaking so much. The twin pistols he was holding looked scratched and were covered in soot. Kidd would never let them get into that kind of condition.

"THEY SCREAMED!" He suddenly screeched out. He didn't sound anything like his normal self. Everyone in the room recoiled back in their seats. He sounded like he was mad with terror and like he was on the verge of going into a hysterical fit of laughter. "They screamed and they cried and wailed! They begged, they pleaded, they prayed, they wailed! THEY ALL DIED!" He fell silent and you could literally hear a pin drop in the room. Not a single one of them said anything and Maka was quite sure everyone was holding their breath in without knowing it.

He fell on his knees and dropped his twin pistols on the floor and covered his face with his hands. His hair was like a crow's nest and it looked singed. He was nothing like the well groomed shinigami he usually was. Maka couldn't possibly think what could drive him into this kind of desperation. She also couldn't believe what she was seeing. The shock of seeing Kidd in the state he was in had driven her senses over that edge that stopped her from seeing souls all the time and driving her mad and what she saw in Kidd's soul she didn't believe. Souls were always presented as spheres inside or around people, but Kidd's soul was missing whole chunks of itself and it looked like it was... burning? How was that even possible?

She stayed there and stared in disbelief, but the sound of him dropping Liz and Patty broke almost everyone else out of their haze and they started rushing towards Kidd to help him and/or get the guns away from him, since he didn't seem all that stable. What had happened and how had he just stormed in here in that condition?

"Oh, are you his friends or something?" A cheery voice said from the doorway. Maka and everyone else turned towards the voice and saw about a ten year old child with thick red hair and big eyes of the same colour looking at them with a small smile. She, or he, it was hard to tell, was wearing a auburn red leather west that looked like it was made out of crocodile skin and slack pants that looked like they were made out of silk. The child had tanned skin and delicate features, so he/she looked like what people think an Arabian prince would look like. Now that she looked at the child more closely something about his demeanour and clothes suggested he was indeed a _he._ The black arm guars on both of his forearms looked expensive with the red detailing and the way they fit his hands perfectly. Was this a new Meister, or a new weapon, or what? He had claws on the end of his fingers, but she had seen stranger things.

"Oh, she's so cute! Have you seen her around before? Is she a new meister?" A girl in the crowd of people around Kidd shouted out. His smile had been pleasant and playful before that statement, but now it had frozen on his face and the corner of his eye had started to twitch; seemed like the new kid really was a guy, since he was clearly getting pissed off at the assumption he was a girl. The girl separated from the crowd of people around Kidd and approached the child in the doorway. "What's your name, sweetie? Where are you from? Are you a transfer student, or are you lost?"

The girl was fussing and was seemingly too preoccupied with appearances to notice the cold look in the child's eyes. Maka watched as the small crowd of girls encircled the newcomer and suddenly the bad feeling Maka had got earlier that day returned thousand fold and she could see something like a raging flame raging around the child.

"What are your ho –"

"She killed herself because of you." The girl's eyes widened and her face turned white. "She didn't do it because your father left you two and you had debt. She slit her wrists and watched as the water turned crimson because she couldn't _live _with the thought of spending her life alone with _you. _The tantrums, crying, demands, insults you so casually threw at her. The feeling of her blood draining out of her and her brain _dying _was a relief for her." The crowd of people around the boy was as silent as the whole room had been a minute ago when Kidd stumbled in. The girl that had called him a girl took a step back and the boy's smile came back.

"People that commit suicide cannot get into heaven, you know; they go to Hell. She is there now, because of you, cursing she ever gave birth to you. You brought her misery from the moment you were born and then you killed her..." The boy had not raised his voice from a threatening whisper, but when everyone else in the room noticed what he was doing they stared in shock and it was like the words echoed in the room. The girls legs gave out and silent tears flooded from her eyes. She started hiccupping and the boy stepped right in front of her. They had not broken eye contact even once and now the boy leaned in until their faces were almost touching. He leaned in right to her ear and whispered something so no one else could hear it.

He walked past the girl and didn't give her another glance. His footsteps echoed in the dead silent classroom. He slowly walked up the steps and towards Maka. Maka could still see the flames around the boy and had to assume it was his soul, but the feeling she got from it was so foreign she recoiled back when he stood next to her and smiled a sweet smile that could have made her go "aww!" if she couldn't see what she saw. This boy's soul was an all consuming flame. He was a monster unlike she had ever seen before.

"Would you like to play a game, Maka Albarn?" He seemed not to have a care in the world and either he didn't realize everyone was staring at him in shocked disbelief, or he just simply didn't care. "The rules are simple enough; I hide, you try to find me. Your friends can help you if you like, but I'll be ripping their souls apart and using them." She stared at him in disbelief and started to wonder what the pause was for, but then Tsubaki screamed.

"STOP!" Her voice was shrill from fear and everyone jumped from surprise. Everyone had focused on the new kid so much that they had missed the girl that had been verbally abused just a minute ago. Now she stood next to Stein-sensei's desk and was holding one of his scalpels up to her throat. She was still hiccupping and the tears flowed constantly the shaking of her hands made the scalpel pierce the skin. Her eyes stared blankly ahead and she slowly turned to Tsubaki, who was slowly and carefully making her way to her and was talking in a low soothing manner. The girl seemed to be listening to Tsubaki and the blade did leave her throat for a second, but then the red-eyed boy turned back towards her and spoke just loud enough for her to hear.

"You will make someone miserable again. Can you deny your guilt another time?" The boy said and the only emotion on his face was child-like amusement. The girl's eyes turned to the boy and those red eyes seemed to make her deaf to Tsubaki's pleas. "Conceited little murderer..."

This little monster had not even raised his voice, but he was right in the process of killing this girl. The girl let out a broken scream and then jammed the scalpel into her neck before anyone could stop her. It might have been intentional, or just her arms losing strength, but she opened her throat vertically in a slight angle all the way to the collarbone. Dr. Stein took pride in keeping his scalpels sharp.

He giggled at Tsubaki stumbling back covered in the girl's blood. He was giddy with delight and seemed to have forgotten about Maka. Soul didn't need any more insensitive to turn into a scythe and Maka swung the scythe at this monster without any hesitation. The boy raised his left arm just in time for the armguards to parry the slash and Maka couldn't believe this kid's luck. He had started raising the arm even before she had moved, so it had to be a –

There was a red flash of light and she was shot through the window of the classroom and she felt like she had been hit in the chest by a sledgehammer. He might have looked like a girl, but he really did pack a punch. She opened her eyes as soon as she realized she had closed them because of the pain. She was just in time to parry a punch he was throwing at her after presumably following her out of the window. The impact sounded very metallic and she noticed his hands were now covered with mean looking gauntlets. She could feel Soul creaking under the surprising power this child was showing. She had identified him as a monster just a minute ago, why the hell was she surprised now?

"Hah! **Let** **the games begin!**" The boy shouted and then he just disappeared. The smirk he had on his was something that struck a chord in her in many ways. His delicate and cutesy appearance and the thick red hair whipping around his childish face that radiated childishly innocent joy made her maternal instincts stir and the fact that he was enjoying killing people that much made her so angry it made her disoriented. What could make such a young child become such a monster?

That wasn't important, she was still falling down. She really should be focusing on that right now. She spun Soul and then swung him into the wall to slow herself down just in time to simply land on her feet. She spun around and prepared herself for an attack that never came. Why would he simply stop attacking after throwing her out of the classroom.

_I hide, you try and find me._

That little fucker had gone back into the classroom! Maka started running and the bad feeling that was this monster's soul wavelength was stronger than ever.

**Soul**

"**Really, what the hell is this? You have a room inside your **_**soul? **_**How is that even possible, huh?" **The little monster said while he fiddled with the gramophone in the room. The music got clearer and louder every time he touched it and he found it fascinating. He had found pounding him into a bloody pulp even more fascinating just a minute ago. This kid had the attention span of a squirrel on meth. **"It would be in your best interest to answer me."**

You're the one who knocked out my teeth, you conceited little brat! The said brat stomped on his neck and he would have died when his air pipe collapsed for the third time, if it had not been his projection of himself the kid was beating. The pain was just as excruciating on the third time around and the feeling of his image correcting itself even more painful. Seemed like he couldn't die like this and didn't this brat find it hilarious.

"**Fine then, be that way. I'll have fun looking at Maka Albarn's face when she sees what's left of you. I am quite certain most of the damage I do to you **_**here **_**is projected into your human form." **He opened the door of the room and then looked out into the darkness beyond like he saw something and then let out a sigh as he looked back at him lying on the floor in his own virtual blood. **"That bitch still hasn't figured it out. She gets wound up pretty easily, doesn't she? Well, the waiting game was getting boring anyway..."**

Then he flicked his wrist towards the hanging curtains in the room and they caught on fire. He hummed a simple tune as he stepped out of the room. Not even sparing a glance to the man he left bleeding in a burning room.

**Lil' Bezanthume**

The fact that almost every single one of these people thought he was a girl pissed him off more than he'd like to admit. He knew he took after his mother so much there was nearly nothing in his features to resemble his father in him, but demons did take after the weaker parent before their power matured. His anger had also made keeping his power in check difficult and he knew for a fact that this Maka Albarn could see his flames as some kind of aura around him.

Bezanthume twisted his form into a flicker of flame and then stepped out of the scythe named Soul Eater as Maka Albarn was standing with her eyes closed. No doubt trying to find him by tracking the aura he let off, but he was rather sure that this time he had been able to keep it in check. Driving that pathetic little girl into splitting open her own throat and seeing the busty little saint drenched in her blood had brightened his mood enough to get his power under control.

Now stepping out and seeing that very few of them had actually left the room in the couple of minutes it had been since he had thrown Maka Albarn out the window was quite surprising, but also made it easier for him to have fun. It had been fun to practice rummaging through people's minds and affecting them through what he knew, but now he wanted to get his hands dirty.

But who to kill first? The guy whose name was so un-inventive it wasn't even funny was still crying about the people he killed and how he had forced him to do it. The Thompson sisters had finally turned into their human forms and were desperately hoping that the people around them thought their blush was from the crying and not after glow from wielding power that destroyed worlds. It had been surprising to notice that they derived pleasure from having his power flowing through them, but it had thoroughly amused him to feel them squirm.

"I'm scum... I'm the lowest of the lowest thing on earth. Lower than the – " Damn, this guy was annoying. Bezanthume started collecting his power into the crystal in his right gauntlet with the intention of stabbing it through the guy's chest. He positioned himself behind the guy and concentrated the flames into his fingers while pulling his hand back. He was then promptly kicked in the face by a short blue haired body builder. He had stepped back into this world to drive his hand through the self proclaimed shinigami's chest and this guy had somehow sensed him.

"Aha! The great Me got her at last! How'd you like that, you sonnofabitch, huh?" He was boasting and was obnoxious as hell, but he was also very angry about him traumatizing his "partner". His thoughts were a mess and very loud, but there was an undercurrent where he was very focused on hearing, smelling and feeling him. He had seemingly felt the heat he had given off a second ago and kicked in that general direction. Impressive, he had to admit, but he had called him a girl _again._ He had also called his mother a bitch.

He had to die.

He concentrated on the energy in his gauntlet and stopped it from discharging as he charged it up with even more heat and energy. He let out a burst of heat and sure enough the blue haired idiot rushed right in towards that direction. He concentrated on the energy not getting out as he sidestepped and then slammed the palm full of explosive and intense flames on the bastard's torso. By the screaming he didn't die instantly, but by the way his hair wasn't on fire he had gotten better at concentrating his fire, even if it was through the gauntlets. The fact that the blue haired bastard hadn't died did mean that he had unconsciously sacrificed power for control. He still needed a lot more practice if he wanted to learn any high level spells.

Suddenly there was the busty little saint who he had been drenched in the depressed little bitches blood standing between him and the blue haired bastard. She had amused him quite a bit, so he didn't kill her right then and there. He stared at her in the eye and could see the fear and anger in them. He could only pick up rational thoughts and images from other minds, but exactly _what _she was thinking about usually helped him determine their state of mind. Random, impulsive acts with no thought behind them were thus about the only thing that could surprise him.

This was probably the reason why the slap to the face came as such a shock. He was knocked to the side and the side of his face hurt, since he wasn't that good at controlling his power to negate something so sudden with his energy. He immediately braced for another hit, but it seemed like she was just as shocked as he was, but she didn't step back when he shot a glare back at her.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you..." _such a monster? _Was what she would have said if the blue haired guy hadn't realized his intestines were boiling inside his charred skin and screamed out. The saint ran to him, somehow thinking she could just turn her back to him, and knelt next to him. Her impudence had to be punished and he took a step towards her with fire charging in his gauntlet when her head snapped back towards him and he stopped.

"STAY BACK! Don't you dare take another step!" Her eyes were full of tears and her voice full of sadness and hate. He still didn't understand why he actually took a step back and why the flame he had been storing up discharged. If he had intended to blow up the teacher's desk, you could call it a raging success, but losing control like this was something he couldn't overlook. He had to find out what was going on here. Someone with weird hair and a spear came rushing at him with considerable speed and it gave him a good chance to see to what extent this loss of control went.

Ox Ford being shot through several walls and having critical third degree burns said that he could very well control his power if it wasn't this woman. He pointed a hand towards this woman and charged up to impale her with a pillar of scorching energy, quick and mostly painless. She flinched from fright and closed her eyes, bracing for impact. The power he had charged up disappeared.

Intriguing. Why was it that he couldn't attack this woman? He took a step towards her and the frightened reaction she gave actually made him hesitate and lash out with a rogue flash of flame. The room had one less wall to worry about, improved the quality of air in the room at least. He kept on walking towards the woman and had to fight down the sudden and drastic bursts of energy every little thing she did caused. Why was it _her _and not anyone else?

"Haven't you done enough already?" Her voice was filled with anguish. There was no other word he could call it. She had totally given up on hope and her life, the possibility that the sorry state the blue haired guy was had a major part in it aggravated him more than he liked, but that was just adding another question on top off a huge pile. Was he jealous?

He hadn't really developed any interest in using sexual violation, or seduction as a means to amuse himself, but he couldn't count it out as a possibility. The woman was quite attractive if he were to view her through those standards. He really did doubt that was the main reason his power was disagreeing with him to such an extent though...

"Do you love this man? Is that why you are protecting him with your body?" He asked and concentrated on picking up every possible sensible thought she made. The answer her subconscious gave without any hesitation was a "yes", but that was followed with a lengthy and embarrassed explanation about platonic love and how she respected his efforts in being a meister and other such bullshit. She might have said it out loud at some point, but he hadn't really been listening.

"Why did you hit me just now? What was it that drove you to do that?" His question was followed by an explosion of hurried and unfinished thoughts about how she should answer this question to avoid any further harm for the already mortally wounded Black Star. He couldn't care less and tried to pole her mind into the direction of just answering him honestly, so he wouldn't have to dig it out of her.

"You have done nothing but hurt my friends. There is no reason for me to not hate you." She said in a voice that was not hers. She was clearly shocked she said something so provocative to should a dangerous person. She was right to think that he could kill everyone she cared about in a snap, but now he had no reason to. This journey had turned into a learning experience instead of an inter-dimensional joyride. Why in the blue fuck was it _this _woman he couldn't kill? "You are a monster in the form of a sweet child."

Why did her words cause such a heavy and suffocating feeling in his chest? Those words had been thrown at him countless times before, so why was it that they now held a meaning to him? Could it really be something as simple as that slap to the face? Could it be that he was a masochist? He really did doubt that, but again, he couldn't count it out just yet.

Someone started to lunge at him again and by the flash of the scythe above him it was Maka. She was furious about the nonchalant attitude he was portraying and hadn't even noticed Soul's condition. Bezanthume had a small moment to consider what he should do to deter this attack. Soul Eater was at his limit and would die if he didn't turn into a human soon and it would be simple to shatter his weapon form with the fire inside him. He _would _shatter if he were to make contact with him. He couldn't be sure, but he had a feeling that another death in the woman's, by the name of Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, circle of friends would not be good for him.

So, the girl lived, even though she was annoying. So, he would have to figure out a way to stop them both, without killing either one. Acting almost purely on instinct he jumped straight up in the air and then curled up as small as possible. He didn't jump far up; just far enough for Maka's over the top swing would make it easy for him to grab her face in one hand and land on her shoulders. Anger _never _helped you in battle, _ever. _He had avoided contact with Soul Eater and the obvious danger to his meister would hopefully –

"Get away from Maka!" Soul shouted and Bezanthume grabbed his face as well. He tried to extract the fire he had left inside Soul as carefully as possible and then concentrated on sending them to sleep. He hadn't practiced using his power to excite primal urges in human souls, but blasting their brains with a minor shock and sending as much Sloth as he could did do the trick. Funny how Sloth was a deadly sin in some mythology he stole the definitions from, well Sloth _was _deadly in the sense that slacking off did get you killed.

"They're just sleeping." He said to Tsubaki Nakatsukasa before she had a chance to shout at him. The interruptions were getting annoying, so he started reciting a spell to make a self sustaining wall of flame around them. He didn't have time to concentrate on it constantly. Now, to figure out why was he going out of control now and because of this woman? He stepped closer to her and could hear the confusion in her mind. He sat down hugging his knees and stared at Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, trying to pick up every single stray thought in her head and examining her features carefully.

The blue haired brat gurgled with blood and what probably had been part of his intestinal track in his throat. Tsubaki thought he only wanted to watch how the blue haired kid died and then amuse himself by watching her breakdown. It had been his original plan, but now he had a sudden urge to prove her wrong. He reached out his hand and stabbed one of the gauntlets fingers in the blue haired brat's shoulder.

"Stop!" Tsubaki shouted and Bezanthume looked up, surprised that he actually had stopped at her word. She had her teeth clenched tight and she was crying, but there was no mistaking the fury in her eyes. She knew she could do nothing to stop him and nothing to save her meister and the depth of her despair was what the anger was trying to cover. He found that he wanted to relieve that pain with no rational reason he could think of.

He ignored Tsubaki Nakatsukasa and started drawing the spell that could save the blue haired asshole's life. He charged the guy's blood with minute amounts of his power and that made the blood act more like disappearing ink. When he was done with one part of the spell, it was integrated into the circle and the structure around it to build it so it could be used within this world. He had to bypass several laws of this world for it to work.

"Now, Tsubasa Nakatsukasa, do you want this man to live?" Bezanthume asked as he drew the last complex symbols and the circle made out of runes and symbols in a complex multidimensional pattern started to slowly twist around its self and glow faintly. He knew that she did want the bastard to live, but for the spell he had constructed to work within their world she had to say it out loud. She looked very surprised and he could hear her screaming to herself that she _could not _trust him, but the answer was obvious for both of them.

"Yes!" She was going to say something to insult him, because he had been the one to kill her _meister, _but he interrupted her by grabbing her hand and holding it over the spell he had constructed from the blue haired man's blood_._

"Your lives will entwined forever, your blood will give him life, but his revival will doom you to live. Do you agree to these terms?" There _always _had to be terms with these kinds of spells. The foundation of most worlds always included a code about maintaining the equilibrium of things, a balance; A life for a life, an eye for an eye. You cannot create, or destroy, that was supposed to be only preserved for Him; you can only _change_. Tsubaki's answer was of course "yes" and this time he didn't have to wait for her to say it out loud. He had only waited for the purpose of her understanding the implications to some extent. He cut a shallow cut in her palm and a trail of blood fell on the spell.

What happened after that wasn't as flashy or melodramatic as Tsubaki had expected. The world just seemed to twist and then Black Star's injuries just disappeared like _that_. Like someone had clapped their fingers and all was well in the world. Bezanthume gave her a genuine smile and the confused and grateful smile she gave him in return finally made him realize why he had been unable to hurt her until now.

The woman reminded him of his mother. The slap she had so suddenly given him had brought with it a sense of authority that he associated with her from that point onwards and the vague, but notable resemblance she had to his mother did the rest. Every single time he had tried to hurt this woman after that, his long suppressed emotional side shouted that he was striking the mother he respected and cared for and stopped him. The quest of controlling the power he wielded had drifted him away from his emotions as a result, so he had denied what he had known from the start.

He didn't want to hurt this woman because she reminded him of his mother. As simple as that, he was homesick. He wielded unbelievable power, but he was still a child. He had become aware that along his body, his mind had also stayed as that of a child. He needed to at least visit home before losing control like this became a constant.

"Thank you... Thank you..." Tsubaki Nakatsukasa mumbled as she hugged the unconscious body of the blue haired guy, Black Star was his name. Now that he knew that the woman reminded him of his mother he could make the proper connection and could keep his power in control. He thought about how long it had been since his mother had hugged him like that.

"My mother makes weapons. She makes weapons for bad people, to do bad things, but they're beautiful." Bezanthume was surprised he was saying this and that he was staring at his gauntlets with a heavy feeling in his chest. The gauntlets had been made by his mother to help him control his power. They fit him perfectly and the shape was freely commanded by his will, if he were to become skilled enough at controlling his power. They were as beautiful as they were deadly. He had to smile after he realized how well that aphorism fit his mother.

Suddenly, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa was hugging him. He could feel the relative coldness of her body and the softness of her breasts. The feeling of her chin pressing on his neck and her arms holding him tight felt... comfortingly reassuring. He found himself returning the hug and letting go of the grip he had of the world they were in. If he were to let go now, it would take him hours and hours to find that specific world again. Everything he had done would be wasted effort if he couldn't devour the world's Power.

But then again, he knew exactly why didn't even try to fight back as he was pulled back into the void that was between all worlds. Taking the World's Power meant reducing everything in it into pure energy, including Tsubaki Nakatsukasa.

Self delusion was just another form of Sloth. And he if anyone knew how deadly of a sin it was. This was indeed a great weakness on his part and if someone knew of it and played it well, then their victory would be easy, even if they were drastically weaker than him. But at least now he was aware of his weakness and was quite certain no one else was. He could work on this and do everything he could, so that he wouldn't get into the situation where someone could capitalize on his weakness.

"Great..."

**Bezanthume**

"**What the!" **He shouted and then spun around while checking the surroundings. He was still in the underground space Urahara Kisuke had prepared for whatever purpose. He had been yawning in a fit of unexpected fatigue and then he was reliving days from his youth.

"What seems to be the problem, Copperwail-kun?" Urahara Kisuke asked and Shihouin Yoruichi only stared at him maliciously. She was probably still sore about him letting Lilith heal her, in her unique way. A quick glance at their minds told him that he had suddenly fell limp and sat in place for a minute or so. The seizures had seemingly become more sudden and unpredictable, but also painless.

He had no idea if it was a good, or a bad thing.

* * *

**Yes, it is part of the original story and anyone who knows anything about Soul Eater should I tried to write Tsubaki as in character as possible. She is awesom in herself, but I would have liked to include Stein, Chrona Sid and other awesome people (Medusa), but they wouldn't really get my point across. Let's say Bezanthume already met them and amused himself enough for them to not show up.**

Yeah... try an' review.


	21. You are mine

**So, here it is. The real update to this fic and not some quickly written omake about Bezanthume's past. This took way too long to write, but it's kinda long as well, so... I dunno...**

**Well, read & review, I guess.  
**

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

**You are mine  
**

The girl was clearly not using shunpo, nor should he be slow enough to be beaten by some random noble, so why the hell had he been unable to catch her. He had run after her and had come close to catching the sword from the girl several times, but she had been able to get away using her cat-like agility and reflexes. It was weird because she never used any kind of spiritual power that he knew of, but she still was faster and didn't even seem to breaking a sweat while outmanoeuvring a _captain_.

"Well, don't you think highly of yourself, Blondie." She said as she twirled around in the air, swinging _his_ _sword_ around with either ignorant confidence, or surprising experience. He jumped forwards and was sure that he would be able to catch her, but she once again surprised him and struck his sword in the wall she was passing and brought herself to a sudden halt while he flew past her and had to stop himself in mid-air.

"Hey, that's cheating! Stop it, or I won't play with you anymore!" she shouted at him while she dangled on the wall from his sword. She really did think of this as a game. She swung her feet back and then hoisted her body above the sword and that caused it to dislodge itself from the wall and she landed on the ground like a cat with the sword in hand. What the hell was she? An eccentric noble, or something he wasn't aware of, an outsider probing Soul Society for weaknesses maybe? Why would the send someone like her, whoever they were? Was it because they thought he would drop his guard around someone like her. He was a captain, he was able to kill people with a thought and a few words, but he still was an adolescent boy in the threshold of puberty, so a girl who was as stun –

He was suddenly slapped in the face incredibly hard.

"Fuck, do you ever stop over thinking things, Blondie? Why don't you man up and live a little?" The girl shouted to him as she jumped away from him. The slap she had given him had caused him to see stars and feel unbalanced, but what he was more concerned about was how she had been able to close the distance between them without him reacting to it. He had been in deep thought, but even with that there should not have been any way someone could have landed such a surprise attack on him.

Unless they had some way of removing any trace of their presence, like this girl. He had not paid any attention to it before, but he could not feel anything coming from the girl. He had thought that it was just because she was weak, but he really couldn't sense even a hint of a presence from her. That meant it was more plausible that she was very skilled at hiding a considerable amount of power, than that she was good at hiding little of it.

He snapped out of his thoughts in time to see the second slap coming and dodge it by swaying back. She didn't look mad, or even annoyed; it was like slapping someone in the face if they weren't listening to you was the most natural thing in the world for her; yeah, definitely a noble, this one.

He then suddenly became aware of the fact that she had crossed the distance between them herself and made another try for the sword. Even though it had seemed the girl had been able to know what he was about to do before he did, now her big blue eyes grew round and she tried to step back while keeping the sword on her left hand. He lunged his right hand for the sword and it was either the fact that the girl would be able to get away somehow if he didn't use the element of surprise he had been given that made him not think about where his left hand was.

As fate had it his left hand went into the oversized and expensive looking cloak and then pressed on to something soft. His mind was almost able to fully register what had happened as he was almost able grab his sword.

Then he was flying towards the ground very fast. He knew this was going to hurt and somehow he also knew that the fact that he couldn't stop blushing and thinking about it was going to make it so much more worse.

"_Set upon the frozen heavens!" _ The girl shouted out as she raised his sword above her head and her eyes shone in a blinding violet light. She was holding his sword with her right hand straight over her head and the cloak she was wearing was whipping behind her like they were wings in the wind calling Hyorinmaru caused. She had her teeth clenched together from anger and he thought he heard her growl. She brought her left hand to the sword and he could barely hear her hiss out the name of his sword as the skies darkened and the wind escalated into a typhoon. "_Hyorinmaru!"_

The sword came down and one of Hyourinmaru's ice dragons shot out at him. The girl had kicked him in the side and the broken ribs and other possible damage stopped him from dodging. The Ice dragon smashed onto him, but since it was _his_ refined reiatsu she was throwing at him it was only the weight of the ice dragon that affected him. If there had been the freezing effect of his reiatsu, then he would have certainly died.

She cursed loudly in a language he couldn't understand and that made his temples throb. He had no idea how she was able to use Hyourinmaru, but at least it looked like she was calming down since she hadn't thrown anything else at him. He realized how wrong he was when she threw the sword at him.

"Oh, come on!"

**Matsumoto Rangiku**

Now, Matsumoto Rangiku wasn't one to admit most of her flaws, but she was pretty sure that her captain had the same problem. He had been noted as a prodigy as soon as he graduated from the academy at such an (apparent) young age. But seemingly he was also clinging to the idea that he shouldn't hit girls, because he was a boy and boys were meant to protect girls.

She had just watched this unknown girl play with him and dance around him because he was underestimating her. It was an incredibly amusing sight to watch and the genuine smile on his face from time to time was just too cute! But after Hitsugaya went and copped a feel, that's what it looked like, and the girl retaliated in a fit of feminine fury she moved herself into a position where she could interfere if needed. The girl's initial attack was way too fast and powerful for her not to be able to kill Hitsugaya by accident. She was in shocked paralysis after the girl was somehow able to use Hyorinmaru against its rightful owner and could only react after she threw the sword at Hitsugaya like it was a spear. Attacks using his own reiatsu and powers might have been weakened, but being impaled by his own sword _would _kill him. She used shunpo to rush between the sword and her captain and was just able to deflect it to the side by swinging her own. It imbedded itself in a piece of rubble nearby.

"And who might you be?" Came a feminine voice from behind her. She looked up to where the girl had been just a second ago and found that the sky had already cleared up and the only evidence of Hitsugaya's sword ever being used was the frost on the ground and the destroyed buildings. That didn't quite make sense, but she still spun around to see the girl squatting next to Hitsugaya and giving her an evil glare.

"Uhm... I'm Matsumoto Rangiku, second in command of the 11th company and his subordinate." She had no idea who this girl was and how she had been able to disperse the clouds Hyorinmaru created so quickly and how she had been able to use Hitsugaya's sword in the first place, so she just assumed she was a noble and lying to a noble could have several kinds of consequences. "And who are you?"

"His subordinate, huh... so he wasn't just delusional when he kept saying he was a captain of something." She poked Hitsugaya in the face with a stick as she talked. Hitsugaya seemed to have lost consciousness at some point. "Should we do something about him? I don't think I killed him... much. It's not like he didn't deserve it." She poked at his broken ribs with enough force to snap the stick in half. Hitsygaya groaned and opened his eyes.

"What the hell..." He fell silent when he saw the look the girl was giving him and averted his eyes. His eyes fell on Matsumoto and the look of bewilderment on his face was just delightful. He obviously had no idea what was going on. She just had to tease him a little.

"You deserved it, captain. You shouldn't try and abuse your authority like that, but these kinds of thoughts are perfectly natural for a healthy young –"

"Shut up, Matsumoto!" Toushirou shouted and tried to get up from the rubble. The girl made a gesture and he was hit in the head by the hilt of his own sword. He fell back to the ground, seemingly unconscious. The girl then slid the sword back to the sheath motioned for her to pick him up. Rangiku stared at the girl, not believing the nerve of the girl in front of her.

_Don't be such a bitch._

But then again, she shouldn't be such a bitch about it.

**Lilith**

Now, let's see; she had taken pictures of Yoruichi without her consent and they had turned out rather well, but now she was at a loss as to what to do with them. She knew every bit of Yoruichi's body already, so looking at the pictures now was like watching a movie she had seen before. Maybe she should sell them, but to whom? That Chizuru girl should find them interesting for sure, but were there any other possible buyers she could bargain with? Letting go off something this unique for anything but the highest bid would be a shame.

"YOU!" A petite girl with twin ponytails wearing black shouted after the kick aimed at Lilith's neck missed. Lilith had seen the girl coming a mile away, but unlike Bezanthume she couldn't read minds as accurately from a distance, so she only knew it was somehow who hated her deeply. Now seeing the girl in front of her she did recognize her, but the name escaped her. "YOU'RE DEAD!"

The next kick was also avoided and Litlith simply couldn't remember the girl's name. It was something kinda cute and stupid at the same time... It couldn't be something like Fluffy, could it? She refused to believe someone other than Bezanthume's bitch of a sister had such a poor taste in names. Well, that didn't matter and the enthusiasm the girl showed in her attempts of trying to kill her was starting to annoy her. The girl hadn't even noticed that Lilith had turned herself intangible a few dozen attacks ago. She joined her thumbs together and spread out her fingers and then flapped her hands.

"A BUTTERFLY!" The girl shouted and her facial expression was that of pure joy. This lapse in concentration on her part allowed Lilith to get in close without her dodging, or attacking and hit her with what she would call the Vulcan death grip, if she knew there was such a thing. The girl's body went rigid at her touch and she let out a wordless yell. Lilith caught the girl's twitching body before it fell from the heights they were in. The effects might be instantaneous and powerful, but taken the girl's no nonsense attitude Lilith was quite sure it would wear off rather quickly.

She dropped them both to the ground and then focused on drawing runes on the exposed skin of the girl's next. They would make her immobilized if she had the time to finish them. The girl's eyes were already regaining focus. She finished the spell and the symbols she had drawn on the girl's neck started to glow. The girl blinked and focused her eyes to Lilith. The attack that followed was almost too fast for Lilith to see, but the dagger on the girl's finger stopped just before it touched Lilith's neck.

"Oh, that's so cute! You think you can hurt me, don't you? Not a chance hun." The girl didn't hesitate on deciding on a tactical retreat, but then was swept off her feet as the symbols on her neck glowed and effectively clothes lined her on the street. "Oh, and you can't get away from me either. Now that I have your attention; would you mind making looking at a few photographs? And before you ask; we can talk about your little butterfly –"

"WHERE!" The girl shouted suddenly and then hit the pavement in frustration.

"... problem." Lilith finished her sentence and then showed the pictures of Yoruichi to Soi Fon.

Lilith had not seen someone be furious, surprised and turned on at the same time, but showing pictures of a closet-lesbian's crush to said person seemingly had that effect.

Oh, she was going to be a fun one!

**Bezanthume**

"**Now, I will take it upon myself to train Inoue Orihime." **Bezanthume calmly stated. The shocked looks from both Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi were quite amusing. The long awkward pause and what they both imagined he would do were quite funny.

"Why?" Shihouin Yoruichi asked, still in her feline form, unfortunately. Knowing that she was such an attractive woman in her true form made the male-voiced cat transformation that much creepier. Bezanthume had thought about not telling these two he would train Orihime and he wouldn't have even done it, if she hadn't manifested new powers because of his contract with her. Telling them the whole truth was still out of the question, so he decided to have some fun with it.

"**You're kidding, right? Have you seen the knockers on her? I might be out for revenge, but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun along the way." **Again, seeing anger and shock set in Yoruichi's features was quite amusing and Urahara calmly thinking if they would be able to stop him if he was indeed serious. They didn't know about his motivations on helping them, but Urahara did have some heavy doubts about the identity of his contractor. The fact that a being tied to a single reality would know such details was impressing in its self, but that didn't mean they should know any more. It was better to distract them from the truth at this point.

"You will leave Inoue Orihime alone." Shihouin Yoruichi hissed at him with a voice so full of anger and disgust it gave him chills. He didn't like giving this kind of image of himself, but powerful emotions were helpful in leading someone away from the truth. "You will stay away from –"

"**And who's going to stop me?" **Bezanthume said and stared down Yoruichi, making sure his eyes shone an aggressive red. Filia then set his gauntlets and his coat in front of him. The gauntlets reverted into armguards and set on top of the neatly folded coat. She was polite and nonchalant about it, but it seemed like both Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi had forgotten she was there. He thanked Filia and she took her place on his left side. He placed the armguards in place and the red details flashed as a sign of recognizing his power. **"What I do with anything and anyone is my business. Try to give me an order again and there won't be anyone to heal you."**

Okay, that had made Shihouin Yoruichi even more furious, but she did realize that he was at least as powerful as she was and mentally unstable, with powers she had no knowledge of and with a loyal servant whose powers were a mystery. For her it was a painful decision on letting him go because the cons outweighed the pros. What Shihouin Yoruichi thought he would do to Inoue Orihime bothered him, but the fact that Urahara Kisuke didn't buy into his facade and would inform Yoruichi as soon as he left bothered him even more.

This could have gone more fluidly, but it was hard to concentrate on anything for some reason. Thinking his plans through seemed like an overwhelming obstacle and he found himself winging it more times he liked. This would also make his actions more unpredictable for Kousuke Aizen to figure out, since he didn't know his motive, or the extent of his power, even if he _did _know about him somehow.

He walked out to the ladder of the space they were in and then shot himself up with his wings and only climbed the last few steps. Filia followed him up by jumping up the staircase in two leaps, breaking some steps of the ladder where she jumped up again. He walked out of the store to stop Filia wrecking the walls and ceiling while following him out through them. Plus, he had to let his head air out a little. He spread out his wings and reminded Filia to actually go invisible before following him. Rising up into the sky and letting the wind slam onto his body as he increased speed while gaining altitude felt better he had remembered. He'd spent too much time plotting things and confining himself into small spaces. He didn't like the cold in the upper atmosphere, but the thin air and the silence cleared his head. There was so much white noise in the world of humans, the chatter of their most mundane thought ringing at the edge of his perception and the kaleidoscope of colours and sounds they had turned their world into. It was no wonder he couldn't think straight.

The blinding light of the sun was refreshing up here. Down on the ground it went through countless layers of pollution and various gasses that siphoned out the edge out of it. Up here it was enough to warm him and it was refreshing to feel warmth he didn't produce himself.

He turned around and looked at the earth he had just distanced himself from. He could hear the thoughts of Filia who was trying to catch up with him, but she was someone who very rarely had a stray thought. It was not like she was stupid, she was a genius among her kind, but it was just that usually they functioned with their metabolisms slowed down and they seemed slow and simple, but when they wanted to they could be devilishly cunning. She was intelligent enough to only think about the important things and smart enough to ignore the unimportant parts. Her reaction time of course suffered because of the slowed metabolic rate, but she was also near indestructible.

It all worked out for her, but what about those who can't even remember how old they are, or what memory is theirs and what's absorbed from some battle of wills they can't even remember?

Wow, that was something he hadn't thought he would think at that moment. It was more puzzling than revealing, but it did give him questions to ask himself and that was at least a start. He looked down on the earth and just like he always did he pulled his wings close to his body and allowed himself to fall. It didn't take long for him to lose sight of what was up and what was down as he spun uncontrollably while falling towards the earth. If he was falling towards the earth, then he could just let it happen, but if he were to fall into the sea, then his fire would work against him. He probably wouldn't die, but even the chance of it happening frightened him.

It was a refreshing feeling. The fear of his own mortality had not existed for him for as long as he could remember. Granted, that wasn't long, but the knowledge of his apparent immortality was enough proof that the fear of death had not been an issue for him. He kept falling and thinking about the passing thought about his past. Had he consumed another mind in his past and was that the reason for his amnesia and why he had been trapped in that orb? Certainly seemed like it, with the facts he had so far. He started accelerating his descent with his wings and as the flailing motion turned into a widening series of corkscrew manoeuvres he regained his bearings and changed his uncontrolled descent into a controlled dive back towards Karakura town.

It had been refreshing moment of distraction, but he had things to attend to.

**Orihime**

Bezanthume not appearing for school was not something she would be disheartened by, but his absence made her as nervous as him being there. He could pop out at any moment and do something just to mess with her. He even appearing as a student of her school had been beyond ridiculous from her perspective, but her friends seemed to have bought into it quite easily. Maybe it had just been a demonstration of his powers? Making her friends think he was a teenager was a feat in itself, but to fool anyone and everyone else as well? It must mean that other people didn't see what she saw, or the ability to read minds went a lot deeper with other people. Maybe he had a power of suggestion he used to imprint ideas into people, kinda like that guy on _Heroes._

"Inoue!" The teacher shouted and almost made Orihime jump out of her skin. Taking the teacher's kind nature it must not have the first time they tried to get her attention. She had become distracted by her daydreams again, but this time they had been about relevant things to her. It was not like she had become enthralled in daydreams about her becoming an awesome android tank of destruction this time.

"Yes! What was the question again, teacher?" Orihime asked, rather peeved at the fact that the class was chuckling, even though she wasn't daydreaming. She was thinking about the mess her life had become and the extent of telepathy the demon that had saved her from another dimension had. There was a difference!

"What were the three lines between king Arthur and the Black knight after the other's arm was cut off?"

"King Arthur said: _Now stand aside, worthy adversary! _And the Black Knight said: _'tis but a scratch! _And King Arthur answered: _A scratch! Your arm's off!"_ Orihime answered. She loved that movie.

"Yes... Yes, exactly, Inoue. Good job." The teacher said and turned back to the board.

"But Ishimura-sensei, weren't we talking about the –"

Orihime didn't get a chance to hear what her classmate was talking about as Bezanthume chose that moment to crash down on the courtyard of the school with a flash of red light only she could see. He dug his hands on the ground to stop himself and then hurried to steady himself as he had to catch the tall redheaded woman that had strangled Orihime that morning. The woman hit him like a cannonball and he was knocked off his feet and they both slammed into the wall of the school. The blinding red flash and the way the building shook meant Bezanthume somehow used that light to stop them before they punched through the building.

"What the hell is going on? Was that an earthquake? Was it a bomb? Another gas main rupture, perhaps?" Asano Keigo voiced out what a normal person would think. Orihime just wished the world would swallow her whole right then and there, since Bezanthume was no doubt making his way there. Kurosaki-kun looked serious and looked out in the courtyard while clutching his shinigami badge. He probably though it had been a hollow lured in by his spiritual energy.

Orihime glanced out again and saw Bezanthume walking across the courtyard with the tall redhead. He was laughing his ass off and the way the woman followed a few steps behind him suggested that she was a servant of some sort. She should ask Bezanthume later on. Bezanthume was making his way towards the doors of the school and turned his head to say something to the woman following him. The woman responded with no more than a few words and started walking towards the gates of the school. Taken the lack of reactions from her classmates, they hadn't seen him, or the woman. Kurosaki-kun looked quite angry at the situation, though. He probably thought that the thing that wrecked the courtyard was the same thing that attacked his sister... well, even though he was right, it wouldn't help anyone to tell him that.

"Inoue Orihime!" Oh god, please, no! This can't be happening. What possible reason could he have to embarrass her like this? His voice was as low as ever and the volume of it made right about everyone but her jump at the sound of it. What had he been doing this whole time to get him so hyped up? "Ah, there you are. We have to talk."

It was just how low his voice was that made it sound intimidating, he actually sounded like he was in a really good mood. Something she hadn't actually seen before. He had laughed and been amused, but it had just been him chuckling and enjoying other people's suffering. Now he just sounded cheery. He was walking over to her desk! God, there was no way she could avoid this now, was there? Was that his whole agenda with this whole act? Making everyone else think he was a high-school student and then picking her up in the crudest way possible; just to embarrass her?

She wouldn't put that past him.

"Yes?" Orihime asked as Bezanthume towered over her. He was wearing his usual black overcoat and it didn't seem like her classmates saw anything different. His eyes had at least changed colours and the red didn't alarm everyone, but Kurosaki-kun looked like he was ready to punch Bezanthume if he did anything offensive.

"We need to talk. Come with me." Bezanthume simply said, without giving the people around them even a glance. She was quite sure that for him they didn't even exist at that moment. He was too caught up in his own reality to notice. He needed Inoue Orihime for something and the people around her could not stop him.

Bezanthume offered her a hand and she suddenly noticed how quiet her classmates had become. They probably couldn't cope with the absurdity of the situation, or just the overconfidence Bezanthume had. Of course they thought she would say no, but she knew it wouldn't change anything. She would go with him, one way or another. He probably didn't care which way it was, but not giving him the satisfaction of traumatizing her friends by dragging her out kicking and screaming seemed like a good idea.

"Okay..." Orihime said, hopefully acting dumbfounded and surprised convincingly enough. Would her classmates buy into her going with Bezanthume just like that? Most of them probably would, but both Tatsuki and Kurosaki-kun would probably think he used some kind of mind control. Bezanthume walked her out into the hall and then grabbed her hand more firmly. She felt some kind of wind sweep over her and Bezanthume had to pull her to the side as Kurosaki-kun almost crashed into them. He seemingly snapped out of the haze before anyone else, but Bezanthume was faster in making them invisible.

"And may I ask what it is this time?" Orihime asked the grinning Bezanthume. What the hell had he been doing for him to be in such a good mood? His hair was swept back, so had he been flying? Kurosaki cursed under his breath and then started running down the hallway, probably thinking Bezanthume had run away with her. Bezanthume chuckled and muttered something that sounded like an insult, but in a language she didn't know. He looked down to her and now that the hostile red didn't distract her that much she could read the excitement in them. She didn't like where this seemed to be going.

"**According to your mind you lifted a SUV with your mind recently. We have to go and take control of that power before you hurt someone and I have to undo it."** Bezanthume said and looked at her, daring her to deny it. She had actually almost forgotten about that with all the crazy stuff in her life at the moment, but she _had _wrecked a car that had been about to wreck her... had it been only a couple of days ago? Wow, a lot had happened in a few days. Orihime nodded and they walked out into the courtyard. The instant they stepped out of the doors of the school Bezanthume grabbed her by the waist and slung her over his shoulder.

"Wha – WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Orihime shouted, surprised, angry and embarrassed. She was still wearing her school uniform after all.

"**Oh, relax. I just want to freak out your classmates. I'll put you down at the gates." **Bezanthume answered nonchalantly.

"Why would you want to do that? Wait, they can see us? Put me down, NOW!" Orihime shouted, suddenly becoming aware of all the eyes that were probably on her at the moment. One set of eyes belonging to Tatsuki-chan, who probably thought the worst and presumed she was being kidnapped. Which wasn't that far from the truth, since she would be going with Bezanthume either she was willing or not. For some reason Bezanthume wanted everyone else to think that she was an unwilling participant in this little kidnapping.

"**Oh, you're getting smarter. Well, the main reason would be to piss off Kurosaki Ichigo and Arisawa Tatsuki and also to make everyone else think the worst."**

"Why do you have to mess with them? Is there any sensible reason for it?" She wasn't even mad anymore. Her life had been hijacked by a juvenile brute of a demon and she should just make peace with that.

"**Hmm... I think I just want to send them a message, especially that Kurosaki Ichigo brat." **Bezanthume answered. They were halfway across the courtyard and Orihime heard sounds of someone trying to force their way through the doors of the school. She looked back and saw Kurosaki-kun breaking out of the school, Tatsuki was hot on his tail and boy did she look pissed.

"And what is that message, then?" Orihime asked and wasn't surprised by the fact that the speed Bezanthume was going they would turn the corner just before Kurosaki-kun and Tatsuki caught up with them.

"**Inoue Orihime is mine." **Bezanthume said just before turning the corner and leaving a very confused Kurosaki-kun and Tatsuki stumbling just behind him. Tatsuki cursed and hit a wall, effectively punching through it. Kurosaki-kun just kept looking around and clenching his teeth. He was probably trying to find her reiatsu, but Bezanthume was seemingly very skilled in hiding any trace of it, since he couldn't sense that she was just next to him. Bezanthume set her down on the ground and didn't seem at all bothered that Kurosaki-kun and Tatsuki were just next to them.

"Why would you have to give them that kind of message?" Orihime asked and avoided Bezanthume's eyes. She knew that he was just probably talking about some detail of their contract, or something, but that was pretty close to a confession. An egoistical, sexist and condescending kind of confession, but a confession still.

"**Because you are mine, no one else's." **She just knew he was reading her mind and stifling a laugh! What other reason could he have to say such provocative things? She was blushing like crazy despite trying to tell herself that he didn't mean it like she thought.

So, before she could reply in any way Bezanthume punched Kurosaki-kun in the face and grabbed her just as he was blasted off into the sky. She thought that he had planned on flying off somewhere and punched Kurosaki-kun just because he felt like it. The initial acceleration to reach a safe altitude almost knocked her out and in her delirious state and because Bezanthume was holding her below her knees and on her upper back (aka: bridal style, but she didn't want to think about that.) the only things she could register was the warmth radiating from his body and the faint, but distinctive smell of his home world from his coat. Now that she had time to get accustomed to it, she found it oddly comforting.

The deceleration wasn't as sudden as the acceleration, but him flapping his wings repeatedly to direct the power from his wings forward made it feel like she would fall of any minute, so she coiled her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him. She was practically pressing her head on the small of his neck and in a random strike of curiosity she bent her neck to his exposed skin and inhaled through her nose. She could smell fresh sweat and the strange aroma she had come to associate with wherever he came from, but she could also smell a distinct aroma that reminded her of charcoal and the smell of a bonfire. It was probably his natural odour, since Orihime couldn't imagine Bezanhtume using perfume. Bezanthume suddenly folded his wings and they fell towards the ground in a rate that would spell injury to any normal human. Bezanthume just bent down on one knee from the impact.

"**We're here. Now get down, we should begin as soon as possible." **Bezanthume let go of her and Orihime tried not to think about the fact that she had just smelled Bezanthume out of misguided curiosity, or the fact that she had found it pleasing. Surprisingly her legs couldn't quite carry her and she almost fell to the ground. How long had they been in the air, anyways? Where were they? What was Bezanthume planning on doing, bringing her to a secluded area, all alone, no one else knowing where they were...

"**What? What's up with that look?" **Bezanthume asked as he glanced at her after he ruffled his wings and folded the on his back. She had probably been right about it being more comfortable for him to have them out, rather than somehow having them disappear into his back. She didn't even bother answering him, since she knew he was reading her mind. He knew what the look was about and he only wanted her to say it out loud to embarrass her. If he hadn't mentioned it by now, then he probably had a valid reason in kidnapping her, so she should try and focus on that.

"Okay, you said that we would train my new power. Why are we here, then? Why couldn't we have done it in Karakura Town?"

"**There are too many distractions for you there. And I also thought that it would be good to keep your power a secret from everyone else for now. Aizen is aware of your current powers, but this power you gained because of the contract between us is an ace up our sleeve as long as it stays a secret." **He paused and gave her a second for what he had said to sink in. When he put it like that, suddenly kidnapping her and not telling anyone did make _some _sense. "**So, with the explanations out of the way, let's get cracking."**

Cracking? Oh, god, he was not going to fight her, was he? Would he actually think she would learn to control this power by fighting him? She wouldn't put it past him, but she seriously doubted she would even last a minute against Bezanthume. He was a demon, for god's sake! Orihime slowly started backing away from Bezanthume and he only chuckled and turned away from her. The place he had taken her looked like an overgrown quarry, or an impact crater of some kind. It was a bowl shaped hole in the ground half filled with water. Because of the topography the water was dead calm and looked more like a huge sheet of polished glass, than the surface of water.

"**Yeah, it's an abandoned quarry. The vein of silver that they mined here ran dry decades ago. There are a few abandoned pieces of mining equipment down there still." **Bezanthume told her, in response to her thoughts. He really was listening in on her thoughts, like she had suspected. He shook off his coat and then neatly folded it on the edge of the water. He then proceeded to confuse her by stepping onto the water and walking to the centre of the manmade lake. His feet only caused ripples in the water, along with dim flashes of red light. **"Okay, now do the same. Walk over here and I'll fly us back."**

What the hell was he talking about? How was she supposed to do that?

"**If you don't make it all the way over here, then no ride back."**

"What?"

**Tatsuki**

"That fucking lecherous asshole! I should have seen this coming! I... I'M GOING TO KILL HIM IF HE DOES ANYTHING TO ORIHIME!"

"Tatsuki, calm down. Screaming about it will not help us. We sh-"

"SHUT UP!" She should calm down, think about this. Benjamin, or whatever his real name was, had kidnapped Orihime and vanished just from under their noses. Ichigo was strong, but he didn't know anything about what Benjamin was really like. She had seen him when he wasn't putting up the facade of Benjamin Copperwail. He was probably not human and if he was, then he wasn't normal.

"We need to find Lily Copperwail. She's in the same boat as him. She's been hanging with Chizuru." Tatsuki thought out loud and started running back to the school. She was still furious, but now she could at least think about this. She _had _to think about this and whatever had happened to her because of Benjamin Copperwail was helping her work her anger as a resource. She ran through the school and didn't even stop to wonder how she leapt up the stairs barely touching the actual stairs.

"Chizuru!" Tatsuki screamed as she stormed back into the classroom. Chizuru barely had time to turn towards her before she grabbed her by the collars and raised her on her tiptoes. She needed to know she didn't have time for any jokes. "Lily Copperwail, where does she live?"

"I – I don't know!" The terrified Chizuru answered, stumbling on her words. The look on her face must have been something else, judging from the look on Chizuru's. "I only have her phone number!"

"Call her. We need to talk." Tatsuki said and let go of Chizuru. Ichigo then stormed into the classroom as well, out of breath from trying to keep up with her. Chizuru was shaking and fumbled with her phone. Tatsuki was in a bad mood and snatched the phone away from her. "What name is she under?"

"Lily!" Came the hurried response. She would have a reputation as a gangster after this, but right now she had to save Orihime. She found the number labelled "Lily" and pressed the call button. The phone rang only twice before Lily answered.

"Hi there, Chizuru-chan! You are right, these things are handy as –"

"Where is Orihime?" Tatsuki asked calmly, repressing the urge to shout, since it would be incomprehensible on the end of the call.

"Oh, uh... This is surprising. Why do you think I would know that?" Tatsuki was about to call her something so rude she shouldn't even know what it meant, but then Lily Copperwail continued. "Oh my, Benny did something, didn't he? You shouldn't worry, though. He would not hurt a woman... Well, not in a way they wouldn't greatly appreciate afterwards, anyways."

"Where are they? You're his accomplice, so you have to know!" Tatsuki shouted, losing her cool again. Her classmates, who had gathered around her from curiosity, all flinched back.

"Calm down, sugar tits."

"What did you just call me, you fu –"

"Now, now, let's calm down. I'll meet you at Orihime's apartment, so we can sort this all out." Lily Copperwail said and ended the call. It took every ounce of self restraint she had not to throw Chizuru's cell out the window, or on a wall. She handed the cell back to Chizuru and then walked out of the classroom. No one had said a word the whole time and she couldn't care less if Ichigo followed her or not.

**Soi Fong**

After the woman claiming to go by the name of Lily showed her the pictures of Yoruichi-sama in such a defenceless state she had tried snatching the pictures from the woman, but whatever the woman had done to her neck activated from a word the woman muttered. She felt all strength escape from her body and she fell flat on her face by the woman's feet. After that the condescending bitch helped her up while smiling sweetly and started walking her towards someplace she didn't know. After a while of walking a few steps behind her she received a call on the piece of technology humans called cell phones. This would have given her ample opportunities to attack the woman and reacquire the pictures of Yoruichi-sama if she hadn't muttered the word that seemed to activate whatever spell she had cast on her before answering the call. She listened to the short conversation, trying to break the spell at the same time.

"Well, it seems like we will be entertaining tonight, cutie. We need to get you dressed up!" She sounded way too happy about that for it to be any good for her. "Oh, come on. I fixed your brain, didn't I? The least you can do is co-operate a little."

You were the one that broke it in the first place, you airheaded bitch! The woman claiming to be Lily and that had somehow made the exquisite white and blue wings that had been on her back disappear in the time she was on the phone helped her up from the ground and walked her into a store with windows painted black. She didn't have time to read the name of the store, but common sense told her what kind of store it was.

"Oh, welcome! We don't get many female customers here. What will it be for the young ladies?" A tattooed and bald man behind the counter of the story said, seeming quite bemused by them. Lily practically dragged her to the counter as they had to get out of the doorway for the couple of male customers that had been in the story left in a hurry.

Wait, the man used a plural! Does that mean he can see her? Oh god, had people seen her with this Lily person before? Was it the spell on her neck that made her visible to normal people? She was actually in a store like this and people could actually see her!

"We are going to be entertaining some quests today and I want to dress my friend here appropriately. What do you have in the lines of chains and leather?" Lily asked and grabbed her shoulder more tightly, stopping her from escaping.

Oh god, no! The effect of the spell had already diminished enough for her to move, but Lily kept her in place and the spell had numbed her throat and mouth, so she couldn't speak comprehensibly. She felt so embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to kill this sick woman with wings, but the spell stopped her from doing that as well.

"Hmm... we have quite a selection; they're over there on the wall, but given her physique I think you should go with the maid costume if you're entertaining..."

Fuck you, bald guy, fuck you! Stop giving her ideas, it was bad enough already, so please stop giving her ideas!

"Oh, that sounds like fun! You have cat ears to go with the maid costume?"

**Ichigo**

Ichigo had no idea what was going on anymore, but he was rather sure that the guy that took Orihime was in the middle of it. Tatsuki seemed to think that this Lily Copperwail was in on it as well and he was inclined to believing her. Their appearance at their school was too convenient, taken the fact that his sister got attacked and Rukia was taken back to Soul Society practically at the same time. He was also rather sure that the thing that had attacked his sister was this Benjamin Copperwail guy, or someone associated with him. The timing was just too much of a coincidence.

Now they were running towards Orihime's apartment, since Lily Copperwail had told them to meet her there. Tatsuki was angrier than he had ever seen her and he had seen her after the whole Kon incident. Running to Orihime's apartment took less time than he thought, but that was probably because Tatsuki was going at a speed he had trouble keeping up with.

"Tatsuki!" She didn't even turn to him. He grabbed her by the shoulder and she turned to him with a look saying he was one bad choice away from being punched in the face. Ichigo suddenly didn't remember what he stopped her for. "Nothing, we can talk about it later, I guess..."

Tatsuki turned around and kept on running. She didn't even look like she was tired when Ichigo was gasping for breath just trying to keep up with her. When had she become so scary anyways?

**Orihime**

"**Oh, you almost got it that time. You have to keep your concentration the whole time." **Bezanthume said as Orihime once again fell through the water and struggled to swim back to shore. Bezanthume didn't tell her anything about how to accomplish the task of walking on water, so she fell into the water for the first dozens of times. After she finally figured out how to use her power to solidify the water's surface Bezanthume started telling her how to do it.

"That's not helping, Bezanthume!" Orihime shouted angrily as she climbed back ashore yet again. She tried to catch her breath, but her body was aching from swimming back to shore constantly. At least the water was warm enough, but she had a feeling that Bezanthume was behind that, since he had been amusing himself by shooting flames into the water the palms of his mean looking gauntlets. She thought he was trying to hit something underwater. "Why can't you give me any solid advice on how to use this thing, Bezanthume? It's your ring and your stupid power!"

"**Nah, it's your power, not mine. How would I know how to use it? And besides, you're doing fine on your own. You just need to keep it up." **Bezanthume answered and motioned her to try again. Orihime got up and concentrated on the ring on her right hand until she felt her hand go numb. She then imagined a glass pathway between her and Bezanthume right on the water's surface. She saw that the ripples on the water stopped on the area she imagined the pathway to be and that at least reassured her. She stepped out onto the water like she had many times before in the last hour. She felt a pressure on her hand as the power she was using was strained by holding her from plunging into the water. She started walking towards Bezanthume, keeping her eyes on the pathway and his thoughts on imagining it to be. She didn't think about how far she had gotten and only realized she was almost to Bezanthume when she saw his boots and the red glow he used to keep himself afloat.

"**Okay, that's good." **Bezanthume stepped closer to her and she could feel him on the walkway she had created. He was heavy. **"Let's get you out of those clothes before –"**

WHAT? His words made her flinch and move her right hand that she used to uphold the pathway. The pathway held her up, but something hit Bezanthume in the face and he almost fell into the water.

"**Damn it, woman! What was that for, huh?" **Bezanthume roared and steadied his footing just to notice that his screaming only made her loose hers. He stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm just as her feet got wet again. He raised her out of the water and then the red glow at his feet spread out enough for her to stand on it. Now that she paid attention to it, she was shivering from the cold. Bezanthume encircled them both with his wings and the heat they radiated gradually warmed her up.

"You... You shouldn't have said something like that so suddenly..." Orihime said and she knew she was right, but she still felt bad about hitting him in the face with her mind.

"**And here I thought that taking off wet clothes was what you did to prevent colds. It's going to take a lot longer for you to warm up with them on, you know."**

"_I think I'll take my chances, thank you." _Orihime hissed, seeing past his words and into his thoughts for once. She would like to be able to read thoughts, it would be handy.

"**No, you wouldn't want that. There are things you don't want to know and with this power you would. You would probably go insane from the white noise alone, in about a week, I'd wager."**

"Would you please stop answering my thoughts like I said them out loud! That is so infuriating and it's not the only thing, oh _no, not even close!" _She was angry, tired and cold. She knew yelling at Bezanthume would probably end badly, but she couldn't stop herself. "You're an egoistical and juvenile bully that things he's above everyone else! You're not that special, you know! You say you're all that, but still you feel the need to constantly show off exactly how special you are to everyone. You're an insecure –"

She was interrupted by Bezanthume bending down and kissing her on the mouth. He slid his right hand to the back of her neck and into her hair and effectively stopped her initial reaction of backing away. She had been busy shouting at him, so he could have stuck his tongue in her mouth, but he didn't deepen the kiss from simply touching lips and nibbling on her lower lip a little. He pulled away so that she could catch her breath and she couldn't read the look in his eyes.

"... You asshole. That was my first kiss and you're only playing with me..." She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and Bezanthume's hand moving from her hair to her cheek to cup it only added to the heartache. He was making fun of her emotions and laughing at her for even thinking that she could – that they could –

"**Oh, for fucks sake! Do I really have to repeat myself?" **Orihime looked up at his eyes and she still couldn't read the look in them. It was starting to make her feel uncomfortable. **"You are mine, no one else's."**

She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up, not for him! He was just twisting the knife in the wound by reminding her that he owned her soul, or something, because of their contract.

"**And I am yours, for as long as you shall live." **Orihime's mind went blank from that statement and it echoed around her numb mind endlessly. She couldn't really think about it before Bezanthume closed in for another kiss and this time touched her tongue with his own before breaking away again. He pressed his forehead against hers and she could feel his hair tickling her cheek. There was still that strange look in his eyes and the aggressive red wasn't as intimidating as before, but that might have just been because she was looking at them through tears.

"**So, about those clothes..." **He said and then chuckled at the look she gave him.

"Idiot... it's still a no." Orihime answered and laughed a little.

"**Aww, come o-" **This time Orihime interrupted him by pressing her lips on his in turn. Ha, how do you like your own medicine, Bezanhtume. Bezanthume stuck out his forked tongue and wresteld her tongue into submission under a minute. The fork tongue felt weird and foreign, but Orihime didn't remember the last time she had been this happy, if she ever had been.

* * *

**Okay, that was that for now. I seem to have the habit of sementing the canon pairing in my stories at the ends of chapters right now. Must be because of valentines day or something**.

**So, review**.


	22. It's all fun and games

**Again, took an ungodly time to write this, but I've been kind of thinking about starting yet another, but I don't plan on abandoning my current ones either. Well, whatever happens, I had fun thinking up the character (OC) on the new fic and the story to go with it, but I'll have to see if I get anything published. It's going to be a crossover fic, if it's even going to be...**

**OKAY! New chapter, probably a letdown ffor those of you that liked the mushy ending of the last chapter. Bezanthume might be a lot of things, but I don't think he's a twinkly-ass vampire that listens to his girlfriend read poetry in a SUNNY field of FLOWERS (seriously, what the hell?). Yeah, Bezanthume might be a prick, but he's doing it for a good cause; himself.**

**He's a demon, deal with it.  
**

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

**It's all fun and games...**

"Tatsuki! Tatsuki, stop for a minute!" Ichigo shouted and slid to a halt. He was exhausted from running after Tatsuki and hadn't paid much attention to his surroundings. He was worried about Orihime as well, but there was something going on that didn't sit well with him. Tatsuki stopped half a block away and glared at him angrily. She was angry, he understood that, but that was probably the reason she hadn't noticed it before he did. "Stop and... look at where we are."

He was out of breath and sweating like a pig, but Tatsuki was barely out of breath. His spiritual power didn't reflect into his physical form, but had Tatsuki been in this fit before, or did that Benjamin bastard have an ulterior motive for kissing her out of the blue like that? Had he done something to... change her? Why would he do that? Well, why would he kidnap Inoue, for that matter? Ichigo straightened his back and saw that Tatsuki was now looking up and down the street leading to Orihime's apartment. Seemed like she had figured out the same thing he had.

"Just how long have we been running down this same damn street?" Ichigo asked and still tried to even out his breathing. Tatsuki didn't seem bothered at all, she just seemed angry, very angry. "You think this is Copperwail's doing?"

**Lilith**

"That should slow them down long enough..." Lilith muttered and snapped her fingers to let the shopkeeper acknowledge them again. Seeing someone solidifying light just with the power of their song was something that didn't sit well with the human mind. She didn't mind people thinking she was _like _an angel, but when they crossed the line of thinking and knowing, it got awkward. She turned her full attention back to the blushing professional assassin wearing a very revealing maid costume and a pair of black cat ears. The rage, humiliation and strictly repressed excitement going on inside the young girl just made her want to tease her more.

"Maybe the maid costume is a _tad_ too revealing..." Lilith said to herself when she examined Soi Fong and couldn't help but enjoy the twinge of fear and that exquisite repressed excitement from the girl at the thought of being stripped naked again by Lilith. "Then again, it's ever so delightful to see you try and cover yourself out of shame... And the cat ears just don't go with anything else. Okay we'll take these!"

"Would like for me to package your other purchases, you can just walk out with the costume if you want, it's one of a kind and you're paying in cash." The bald guy at the counter asked, rather calmly. He was not as fazed by her ethereal kind of beauty as the normal guy. Lilith had a feeling it had something to do with his preferences and it was refreshing to have a guy not become a drooling idiot in her presence.

"Oh, please do, we're kinda in a hurry. We have to prepare for some guests." The shopkeeper started packaging Lilith's new toys into plain paper bags. It was probably because very few wanted to walk around town with a bag with the shop's name on it. Lilith turned back to the changing room in the store and noticed that Soi Fong was trying to change back into her old clothes. "Oh, no you don't! You look way cuter in the maid outfit. Unless you want to walk out of here buck naked you're wearing it, your choice; I'll get a show either way."

"I'm going to kill you in ways you can't even imagine!" Soi Fong hissed out, shaking from rage and frustration with tears in her eyes. The girl was just so cute Lilith would have to think of new ways to make her squeal, moan and whimper. As her mind was too preoccupied in coming up with these ways she simply pinched the girl's nipple between her fingers through the fabric of the maid costume and gave it a little twist, just enough for it to hurt, but not enough for it to be actually painful. The girl let out a little yelp out of surprise and something else Lilith would spend hours upon hours teaching the little cutie about and her blush deepened even more.

"Deny it all you want, hun, but you're enjoying this." Lilith whispered in Soi Fong's ear and reattached the choker that kept the top of the maid costume in place. She asked for another bag for the clothes Soi Fong Had been wearing when they walked in as she paid for their purchases and told Soi Fong to put them in it if she didn't want to lose them. Soi Fong folded and stuffed her shinigami robes in the bag along with her zanpakutou and then followed Lilith out of store before the enchantment on her neck forced her to do so. She learned fast, if nothing else. Again, Lilith had to fight the urge to tease the girl as she walked out the door clutching the bag to her chest and keeping her eyes on the ground. She was seething with anger, but the overwhelming feeling of embarrassment along with that exquisite excitement made it no more than an undertone.

Oh, this girl was a real catch!

**Bezanthume**

Okay, why did I do that again? What was the thing that started the chain of events that led me to kiss Inoue Orihime? Sure, she was attractive and her innocence did excite his hunger, but why did he go to lengths of sweet talking her to kissing back? Was this just another thing he did just for the heck of it? He would like to say yes to that question, but something stirring in the back of his mind said otherwise. A feeling of familiarity, a sense of déjà vu, you might say. He pulled himself apart from Inoue Orihime and tried to grasp the memory taunting him, just out of reach. Inoue Orihime took the chance to even out her breathing, but her thoughts said that she didn't want it to stop yet (either).

"**You are beautiful." **Inoue Orihime didn't avert her eyes or try and deny it. Surprisingly, she had the modesty to actually take an honest compliment. She was very close to him and he could feel her body pressed against his. She felt soft and he could honestly say he hadn't seen a more beautiful human, as far as he remembered, at least. He was a mind-reader and he could "see" the minds of people as an aura around them and that reflected into the way he perceived their appearance. The fact that he could not see a single thing wrong with Inoue Orihime when he looked at her meant her mind was just as beautiful.

"Why are you staring at me like that? It's getting kinda creepy..." She seemed confident and at ease in his arms and had not made any complaint about him just holding her against him with their faces nearly touching. He just became aware he had been staring into her mind for a solid 5 minutes. Her thoughts were frantic and lovesick, but there was some part of her that stopped her from spazzing out completely. When he tried to look at that part again the itching in his head intensified and he lost sight out of it again and almost forgot about it, before spotting it again.

"**I... I'm fine, it's just... I don't know." **Bezanthume averted his eyes and tried to convince himself to not pry into things in Orihime's mind that made him feel... that. It was probably not good for either one of them. It felt like some part of her she had suppressed almost completely. It would have to be addressed at some point, but Bezanthume thought it wasn't that important right then and there. He bent back down and set Inoue Orihime down on the water. The look she was giving him was so innocent and dazed that he couldn't help but smile. Not many of her thoughts made sense, but the healthy amount of doubt was there, considering she actually knew he was a demon, a liar and deceiver by definition. It was just buried rather deep under the lovesick gibberish and feverish thoughts about going a few steps further than making out.

"**Well, you're obviously too excited to keep training, so let's take a little break." **He said and then proceeded to escort her off the water and onto the shore of the overgrown quarry. He walked over to where he had folded his jacket and sat down next to it. Inoue Orihime sat next to him, still staring at him. He tried not to pay it any mind and rake his own head for the reason for his unplanned show of affection, but the longer she stared at him the itch in her head bothered him more and more.

"Then maybe you should stop reading my mind, Bezanthume." Inoue Orihime said and Bezanthume turned to her in surprise. He saw that the surprisingly logical thought that had spurred her to say those words. That being that they were the only ones there, she had come to the conclusion that the thing that was bothering him was her erratic thoughts. She was more aware of her own self than he gave her credit for. And her confidence in knowing what he was thinking was impressive and quite out of character for her. Then again, random and unexpected behaviour _was _in her character. She was probably the only girl that could surprise a mind-reader so easily. It was refreshing to say the least.

"**I genuinely have no idea how your mind works, but it sure is amusing." **Bezanthume said and smiled. He had a feeling that telling any lie at this point would bite him in the ass in the future. He didn't know if it was because of his ability to reverse time, or if he just didn't want to, but he suddenly found himself speechless when he couldn't just outright lie to defuse the situation. He had to get them out of this whole thing somehow, since Inoue Orihime's mind was starting to make sense and Inoue Orihime clinging to him in her love struck foolishness wasn't something that would exactly further his plans; he had to think of a way to distance himself without Inoue Orihime using the blood scripture against him.

So, in other words: He was trying to think of a way to shoot down a girl without making her mad...

Why did he keep putting himself in impossible situations?

**Lilith**

Unlike what she had led Soi Fong to believe, people couldn't see her. Of course, Lilith had the means to make her visible by bending light around her form, but the end result would look translucent and ethereal. If she really wanted to have people see the embarrassment on her face, then it would take more than ten minutes of intricate spells and Soi Fong's co-operation in all of it. Just making that one guy acknowledge her by feeding the image Lilith had of Soi Fong into his mind was enough for Soi Fong to _think _people saw her and were staring at her. She was walking too close to Lilith to discern if they were looking at Lilith, or her, so it all worked out.

Lilith was having a time of her life and was quite proud of herself for deceiving a trained ninja so easily. Some of Bezanthume's natural deceitful nature must have rubbed off on her from all the rubbing and grinding they used to do. The Bezanthume that had brought her back from the moon frightened her, but the power and cruelty of his new self was quite... enticing, now that she thought about it. Bezanthume had been damaged goods from the first time they had met, but back then he was at least aware of it.

"Where are we going? We better get there soon, or I swear I _will _find a way to hurt you." Soi Fong said in a threatening hiss, but the meek tone and downcast eyes took all edge off of her threat. Lilith just smiled and pinched her cheek. The look Soi Fong shot back at her was seething with hate, but she was also utterly confused about what she was actually angry about. Bezanthume might have been aware of every single thought the girl had, but Lilith knew all of her hopes and dreams. She wanted this; she had always wanted this.

Being true to one's self was the one and only commandment she would not break. Not anymore, at least.

"I'm an angel, you know." Lilith said and started walking backwards to see Soi Fong's reaction. "More like the Christian definition of one, but an agent of God, nonetheless. Like any other race, there's variation and differing factions, even amongst us."

"I don't care!" Soi Fong shot back rather quickly, but the split second of "That explains everything!" on her face didn't go unnoticed by Lilith.

"Oh, I _know _you do care. You've been wondering why you find me so beautiful and perfect when the one you actually love is so different, in almost every way. The explanation is quite simple if you accept the fact that I am an angel, a messenger of light and creation." Soi Fong did not answer, but her furious stare now had suspicion in it. Was she suspecting her when everything would be explained by it, or was it the messenger part? "Oh, don't worry, I will not try to convert you to anything... religiously, at least. I fell out of grace a long time ago..."

They turned a corner and Lilith started to walk forward again. They walked the rest of the way in silence and Lilith led Soi Fong into Inoue Orihime's apartment. It was small and almost exactly like the apartment Bezanthume had bought next door, but she liked the energy of life Orihime had left there. Lilith was an angel and she still couldn't believe the kind of saint that girl was.

"Why have you brought me here? What is this place?" Soi Fong asked, probably suspecting there was some kind of sinister secret hidden in the apartment. That would have been true if Lilith had brought her to the apartment next door, the one Bezanthume had augmented. As far as she knew, Orihime's apartment was untouched in that regard.

"I told you, didn't I? We're meeting some people here. They'll be here in a few minutes, I wager, so we've gotta get ready to entertain. Now, come over here." Lilith gave Soi Fong a smile and revelled in the mix of hate, embarrassment and suspicion it caused. She knew Lilith would do something she wouldn't consciously approve of, but what she had dreamed about for ages.

**Hitsugaya Toushirou**

He had no idea where he was when he regained consciousness and at first he thought that the strange girl had brought him to her home, or her employers. There was more than a chance of her being a spy for a faction against Seireitei, so his reaction of jumping up and dashing for his sword was justified. So was Captain Unohana's reaction of forcing him back onto the bed. He might have been disoriented, but seeing Unohana meant he wasn't in enemy hands. So, Matsumoto had brought him to the fourth division hospital for his injuries.

"I'm sorry about the inconvenience, Captain Unohana. I'm sure you have better things to do than heal me." Unohana should be a rather busy person, so her being the one to heal him meant that his injuries were more severe than he had thought.

"It's been a slow week for me and your little friend was quite worried about you." Unohana simply stated as she readjusted his bandages. Toushirou felt a lot better than when he woke up in the rubble, so Unohana must have healed him most of the way already. Had the girl used her influence as a noble to get Unohana to heal him herself, or was it just Unohana's motherly nature that persuaded her to listen to her plea?

"Where is she? Is she with her parents?" Hitsugaya had a bad feeling, since he remembered the other person who had been there when he lost consciousness. If things were as he feared, then this couldn't end well, not by a long shot. Unohana smiled a cryptic smile and Toushirou had a feeling she misunderstood his worry, but knew better than to pursue the matter right then and there.

"She left with Matsumoto-san soon after they brought you in here. She's quite the character, you know. She re-hospitalized a couple of 11th division members on her way out for badmouthing you. They're too embarrassed to admit it to anyone, though." Another cryptic smile and Touchirou had to wonder if she was just amused at the idea of 11th division members being beaten by a small girl, or the fact that Kenpachi would promptly assign them to another division if he ever found out, thus giving Unohana leverage to keep them in line in the future.

"I think I should go and stop them from doing something even more stupid." Toushirou said and tried sitting up. There was a twinge of pain on his side, but nothing was broken anymore. Unohana didn't try to stop him, so the treatment was at an end, or Toushirou would find himself waking up after it was. Unohana took her job seriously and it would take the madness and power of Zaraki Kenpachi to get out of this hospital while still injured.

Unohana silently excused herself as Toushiro replaced the tattered clothes that had either been fixed, or simply replaced with new ones and headed out the hospital, still tying his sword onto his back. He had a seriously bad feeling about Matsumoto and

"_Oh, good, she fixed you already! She insisted on leaving your sword with you, though, but I got a bag of these rubbery little sweets out of it, so it all pans out." _Comparing the most powerful ice-type zanpakuto to a bag of gummy bears... Yes, it was most definitely her and Toushirou didn't even know her name. After spinning around like an idiot and trying in vain to find any trace of her presence he decided to just keep walking.

"_Hey, Rangiku, tell him to stop ignoring me!" _The strange girl's voice rung out yet again and he still couldn't place it. It was somewhere close by, but it sounded like the girl was slurring over some of her words and the voice was muted.

"_Captain, you should listen to what girls say! Even though you can freeze people you're too cold... Too far, you're taking your cool...ness." _And now he was hearing Matsumoto slurring over her words, drunk as a skunk when she should be working, yet again. Wait, the girl was slurring over her words as well... Oh no, even Matsumoto isn't that irresponsible!

"_Maybe he just can't hear me. HEY, HITSUGAYA TOUS –"_

"WHAT IS IT?" Toushirou shouted and scared a couple of 4th guard nurses carrying bags filled with what he presumed to be laundry. They scurried away from the enraged captain before he had a chance to apoligize. Having so many 11th guardsmen as customers probably made you more cautious about sudden outbursts of violence than you normally should be. He took a deep breath and swallowed any annoyance he had. "And where the hell are you? I cannot place you."

"_What, you can't – Oh, you weren't dancing! You looked like a beached whale with arthritis anyways, so that's a relief. 'kay, lemme see what seems to be the problem... Ah, maybe if I..."_

Toushirou heard something explode in the direction of the 12th division barracks, aka: Kurotsuchi's laboratory. Coloured smoke billowed out along with the bodies of countless 12th division members. They were flailing and screaming quite vehemently, so at least there weren't many casualties. He also thought he saw Nemu leaping around and catching the flailing victims. Kurotsuchi didn't seem to like the idea of losing that many potential test subjects.

"_Nah, that isn't right... We need more cowbell!" _The girl shouted out and then proceeded to giggle while doing whatever she had done to blow up the 12th division barracks. Toushirou made the mistake of looking up and seeing the tiles on the wall next to him start clattering and then running away as a horde of squirrels. What the hell was this girl doing and how?

"Stop playing around! You're going to hurt someone!" Toushirou shouted out and the constant muttering and giggling he had heard while the newly created squirrels ran in circles around him stopped and said squirrels scattered to do more squirrel-like things. How in the blue hell could someone be so powerful and still be so irresponsible with that power?

"_Okay, okay. You don't have to shout. It just took a while to key in on you. Now, stay still." _Toushirou was annoyed, so very annoyed. He was going to be the one to explain all of this and apologize for it when he didn't even start to understand it. When had his life turned this complicated? Oh, that's right; the exact moment that girl walked into it!

"_FALCON..." _What the hell was it now? Was she going to turn the tiles on the road into falcons? Ot maybe he would find Hyounmaru flying away as one. Why was she shouting "FALCON" in the first place? She stretched it out strangely, so was there another part to it? WHAT WAS GOING ON!

"_PUNCH!" _Suddenly, there was a fist in his midsection, burrowing right into his gut and forcing all air out of his lungs. He was thrown back in the air and when he blinked it felt like he was spun around in the air for a couple dozen times before he fell back onto the ground. No, not the ground; the floor. He opened his eyes and saw the girl standing over him, with her arm still extended into an overly dramatic punch, in the 10th division office where Matsumoto hid the booze and where he usually worked. There were thousands of questions in his mind, how she got him there and why did she have to punch him to do it among them, yet all he could think of was:

"That name makes no sense!" He shouted when he was able to draw enough breath to do so. He pushed himself to a sitting position and noticed that the girl wasn't wearing that huge cloak that had hidden everything other than her head. What she had been wearing under it surprised him, like any other thing about this girl. He had expected for her to be wearing something traditionally Japanese, something that nobles wore. He had not expected for her to be wearing western clothes under the dark cloak, but taken all the unusual things he had witnessed the girl do he should have known she wouldn't live up to his expectations. Taking into account the times the girl had seemingly read her thoughts, there was the possibility she did it on purpose, somehow. Seriously, nothing about this girl seemed to make sense.

The fact of the matter was she was wearing beige Bermuda shorts held up by a thick leather belt with a skull with fangs as a belt buckle and a black T-shirt several sizes too big for her with a picture of a lemon on fire and the statement "I'll burn your house down" under it. Again, he had expected something refined and normal and what he got was strange and confusing.

"It makes perfect sense! Falcons are awesome!" He took time to settle his breathing and get back up to his feet, waiting for her to continue, but wasn't exactly surprised to see her sitting opposite to Matsumoto on _his chair _with all the booze Matsumoto had been able hide into the room strewn between them on the table. Seemed like she thought that she had won the argument just by saying it made sense and then saying falcons are awesome. Granted, he agreed on that, but it still made no sense, since falcons had no capability to punch anything, since they had no arms.

"Have you been –" The girl grabbed a bottle from the table and started pouring it down her throat, as if to answer the question he was unable to finish. More than half of the bottles between her and Matsumoto were empty and Toushirou hoped Matsumoto had been the one to finish most of them before passing out, since he didn't want to think she was irresponsible enough to let someone clearly underage drink in her presence. The question as to why she started to drink with the girl in the room was a question he would have to address some other time, but it was just as baffling.

"Stop it! You're body's too young for alcohol!" Toushirou shouted as he rushed to grab the bottle from the girl's hands. The girl kicked the chair back a couple of inches just as he lunged and left him stumbling when his hand closed around nothing. She then threw the empty bottle at his head, forcing him to duck and then used the chance to grab another bottle from the table and cartwheeled away. Drunk or not, this girl was both fast and cunning. "The bottle you just drank was a brand of sake that had been specially treated to affect spiritual bodies. Matsumoto only has potent liquors in her office stash, so you should just put that down!"

"Ya 'new Boobs 'here was tippin' on tha job... Wha's wrong with ma... wurds?" The girl was blinking and seemed to have difficulty in keeping her eyes open and focused. She put her left hand on her temple and closed her eyes completely. She looked like she was fighting away a headache and her hold on the large whiskey bottle loosened. "I cannot be intoxicated. I am above you, I am impervious to any and all attack!"

She shouted the words out like she was reading them out from a manuscript. Toushirou reasoned that she must have been disciplined in some strange techniques of her own Noble family and she had been taught it made her invincible when it was probably just some arcane way of bending spirit particles. True, Soul Society and everything in it was constructed out of some kind of spirit particle, but there had to be a limit to her ability.

"You assume too much, Blondie. That's your problem; you are too preoccupied with your manner of reality to accept any other. Reality is not a... it's not something _you _could fully comprehend." The girl said while swaying in place. She swung the hand with the bottle of aged whisky towards him. He flinched, thinking she was throwing another object at him, but she was just pointing at him accusatively. "Reality is a name you gave a power you cannot change! A label you slapped on something your puny minds could not understand! Pathetic! Stop thinking I'm crazy!"

This time she did throw the bottle at him and if he hadn't been excepting it, he would have been hit with a bottle of flammable liquid going at impossible speeds. The rants about reality might have not been all false if she could get a bottle of whiskey to go that fast with such a haphazard throw.

"Oh, that's just perfect! It's so in tune with your anarchist society that _violence _is the thing that makes you listen!" Okay, it was painfully clear that this girl was an angry drunk, but Toushirou was more concerned about the fact that the bottles on the table had started to clatter. Was this girl's power not the cause of some strange technique? For her to be able to use it as she was unable to concentrate meant it was an innate ability of hers. Like how he had been forced to learn how to keep the freezing effect of his reiatsu in check.

"Calm down, the alcohol in your system is making you sick. We'll have to get you to the fourth division." Toushirou took a few careful steps towards her. Even though she had her eyes shut and was swaying in place from the alcohol he was still tentative on approaching her. This girl had surprised him on every other turn and no matter how much this looked like a genuine case of developing ethanol poisoning, the girl could just be playing him for a fool. "Put the bottle down and we'll get you better, I'll get you to the fourth division myself."

"Shinigami... Death Gods... Well, I'm dense for missing that. Fuck you and your ambrosia!" The girl shouted and threw the whiskey at all the other bottles on the table. As much Toushirou thought Matsumoto deserved being hit by the high-speed shards of all the bottles she had laid out with this girl, who was clearly too immature to digest alcohol that affected spiritual bodies, in the room, he knew he wouldn't hear the end of it if he actually let her own stupidity get the better of her. He rushed past Matsumoto and knocked her chair down as he jumped away from all the exploding glass. The girl must have been using some of her power, whatever it was, since the bottles were actually exploding, instead of just shattering from impact. This girl was a dangerous mix of powerful, clever and unpredictable. Toushirou knew he should be considering her a threat and a criminal for what she'd done, but a large enough part of him dismissed that as nonsense for him to try to help her instead. He'd rather not to think too deeply on his reasons for thinking that, though. It would only work to distract him and enrage this girl further, since she had already proven to be able to read his thoughts.

"Damn right!" The girl shouted out, apparently in response to his thoughts, but the timing still could have been just pure drunken luck. The girl had been swaying almost the whole time Toushirou had been in the room, but now she stumbled on her own feet when she decided to take a step towards her cloak. Frankly Toushirou was surprised the girl hadn't been nauseous by now, since she had downed a large bottle of sake tempered to be especially drunk by powerful shinigami.

He had learned of the whole matter when he had agreed to attend an unofficial gathering to boost morale between divisions and was offered sake, just like anyone else. Kyouraku then encouraged him to start drinking, since it wasn't treated, like the stuff Zaraki and the rest of the captains were drinking. Your level of reiatsu seemingly had a lot to do with how well you could handle your liquor after you reached a certain point. He didn't know what that point was, but Zaraki was hardly ever seen intoxicated and there had been only two recorded incidents of him tearing the 11th division apart after a major get-together, so he didn't have much of hangover either.

"Oh, wow... I didn't know someone could be so wrong and also right at the same time..." The girl said and took another step towards her cloak. Either it was just the fact she didn't want to part with such an expensive looking garment, or that she thought she had something she could use to heal herself. Toushirou was quite sure she couldn't, but this girl had surprised him on any other turn already, so he tried not to make any assumptions. He also admitted that he was a little more than tentative on approaching the girl after she had hospitalized him the first time. "Yeah, I'm starting to feel quite sick... I'll just grab my cloak and you can take to the healers. Have them purge my stomach; I should be fine after that."

The girl said this in a more serious tone than before and made a haphazard dash for the cloak lying on the back of the chair she had been sitting on while Matsumoto drank. She grabbed it and it draped itself over her small figure as if it was something alive and responding to the girls' need. For all he knew, it was and _she_ had to be the one to grab it because of some lethal defence mechanism. Now that the girl had her cloak and wasn't moving at all from the place she had fallen Toushirou rushed to her and checked if she was breathing with the back of his hand. After he felt her exhale on his hand he grabbed her and rushed out the window. Trying not to go too fast, but he found himself using shunpo anyways. The girl started stirring in his hands and he slowed himself down to make the ride smoother for her. He didn't like the idea of making her get travel sick.

"It's not the alcohol, Blondie... It's what is making it work that I'm allergic to. Tell them that, I'm feeling a little too drowsy to remember that..." Toushirou had to strain his ears to hear what the girl was saying and he thought she sounded more sick than drowsy. What was making it work? So, she had been aware she was allergic to whatever it was that made the alcohol more potent and then drunk it anyway? Had it been his appearance that had caused her to grab a bottle in random and possibly poison herself? She did seem to find teasing him a delightful way to pass the time.

"I'm sure they know what to do. We'll be there in a minute." Toushirou said courtly to the near unconscious girl in his arms. She looked a little green in the face and had trouble keeping her eyes open properly. Toushirou could also clearly tell that she was running a high fever through the fabric of her cloak. He didn't know if he should keep her awake or not, but he didn't see any harm in trying it anyways. He should try and keep her talking, but what could he possibly talk about? He had already memorized the label of the bottle, just in case the specific brand of sake she drunk could help in treating her.

"I've been calling you "girl" in my mind this whole time, you know. It's obvious that you know my name, but could you tell me yours?" Toushirou asked the girl and the question did relight some of that light in her eyes. Her eyes had always shone to some degree and it had been dimming the whole time he had seen her swaying in place. The light was back in her eyes, but the look she was giving him was suspicious and angry. Like she thought it was insulting to even be asked such a question. "Of course you don't have to answer me, but it would make it easier for us to contact your parents."

The girl's accusative glare continued and Toushirou jumped and shunpo'd towards the hospital he had just been in himself, because of the girl he was bringing there, mind you. The girl's glare wasn't as aggressive as before and she looked greener than before. They were quite close to the hospital, so he landed on the ground and decided to run the rest of the way. Actually, he ended up using his freezing reiatsu and sliding along on the longer straights in the road. He had used this way of travel to train his control over his reiatsu, but this was seemingly another way to put it into practice. The girl in his arms was still giving him a crossed look. Was this just a drunken mood, or had she misunderstood his question altogether?

Just as Toushirou slid to a halt in front of the hospital and rushed inside to get the girl help he heard her utter a few words in a language that he didn't understand, or pronounce for that matter, and there was only one word that didn't hurt his brain. He hurried himself with instructing the healer with what and how much the girl had drunk and also told her about the allergy the girl had mentioned. The healers busied over her and her uncooperative cloak, then told him he could leave her there for the time being while they did their thing.

He still found himself pacing near the healers had taken the girl. After an hour he sat down on a chair nearby and finally stopped to think what the girl had said. He was more puzzled by fact that it had sounded so incomprehensible to him. It wasn't like someone speaking a foreign language, then he could at least remember the words and check what they meant later, but not for that one short sentence. He knew she had said only a few words, but he couldn't even start to remember how they sounded, or how to put them on paper, save for that one word.

Rezaliel.

What did that mean?

**Tatsuki**

After what had to be solid hour of running up and down the same street they found themselves inexplicably right in front of Orihime's apartment building. The world just kind of turned too bright for them to keep their eyes open and when they opened them they were in front of Orihime's apartment. Ichigo looked puzzled and surprised about it, but Tatsuki just decided not think about it for now and stormed ahead with Ichigo following a few paces behind. She leapt up the stairs and turned the corner to see that Orihime's apartment's door was open, as if inviting them in. She didn't hesitate going in and then she had to fight down the urge to punch the blonde haired bitch that was sitting on the other side of Orihime's kotatsu.

"Oh my, you're all wound up. We won't be getting anywhere if you're that agitated." Lily said in a sweet voice, with what sounded like genuine worry in her voice. Tatsuki was surprised that she actually _wanted _to believe she was sincere. She knew better and took her words as they actually were; a warning to not get violent, or she wouldn't help her. Ichigo stepped into the apartment and Lily gave him a dazzling smile. "Oh, you're the ginger troublemaker, the one with the huge sword? Good to see you while you're not bleeding to death."

"Where is Orihime?" Tatsuki asked, forcing herself not to shout at the irritatingly calm woman. She just turned to her and gave her a reassuring smile and as much as she didn't want to admit it, but it did calm her down a bit. It also made her think about what the hell it was about this woman that was so reassuring.

"With Benny, I'd wager, but we should discuss this over some tea." The woman clapped her hands and then turned her head towards Orihime's kitchen. Tatsuki turned her head that way as well, but from where she was she couldn't see what the woman was looking at. The reassuring smile on her face changed into a kind of leer when she picked up a weird looking device with a dial on it from under the kotatsu. She flicked her thumb over the dial and both Tatsuki and Ichigo heard a female voice yelp in Orihime's kitchen. "Now, serve us some tea, will you, dear."

Tatsuki and Ichigo were both frozen in place from surprise as a short girl with pigtails walked out of the kitchen with a tray with three cups of tea on it, along with assorted confectionary. She was walking kind of awkwardly and was blushing like crazy. Tatsuki had a feeling it was more than likely because of the maid costume she was wearing. The black cat ears she was wearing made Tatsuki think she was cosplaying as someone from an anime, but the fact that the maid costume was just a frilly miniskirt with a frilly top and long sleeved gloves made her doubt where she had gotten the costume.

As they watched in slack jawed wonder, the girl set down the cups of tea and then tried to scurry back into the kitchen, but another flick of Lily's thumb and she stopped and twirled around with another yelp. Tatsuki noted that she was breathing heavily and her legs were shaking, the blush on her face was obviously from embarrassment of people she didn't know seeing her dressed up as she was, but the way she was breathing in heavy gulps of air along with the way her eyes had trouble focusing made Tatsuki feel uncomfortable in a way she'd rather not be at her age. She noticed how Lily turned the dial on her device the other way and saw that the girl relaxed considerable because of this. Lily then motioned for the girl to sit next to her and she silently obeyed, eyes cast on the ground.

"So, I take it you want to know where Benny's taken Orihime?" Lily said like nothing unusual had happened at all. Tatsuki and Ichigo, Ichigo especially, could do nothing but stare at the blushing maid sitting next to Lily. Lily looked between them and the girl a couple times in the uncomfortable silence, as if asking what was so shocking about it. She then proceeded to lift the girl up and set her down in her lap. Sure, the girl was petite and Tatsuki was sure she could lift her as well, but the ease Lilith did it in was unnatural. Lily then wrapped her arms around the girl, who was trying to get away from the woman (although rather meekly) Lily gave the girl a kiss, cupped her blushing cheek and locked gazes with her until she stopped struggling and settled down on her lap. Ichigo's legs gave out under him and he tried to play it off as sitting down by picking up the tea and taking sip.

He then nearly choked on it as Lily kissed the girl and then started planting butterfly kisses on the girl's neck. Ichigo was in danger of bleeding to death from what was happening in front of him and Tatsuki had right about had enough. She came into the apartment to find and save Orihime and Lily parading her provocatively dressed maid had surprised her, but now it was doing a better job annoying her than distracting her.

"You about done?" Tatsuki shouted and Lily looked up to her in surprise, like she just remembered they were in the room. She detached her lips from the maid and smiled apolitically, yet didn't make a move to get the maid out of her lap.

"Sorry, got a little carried away there. I already told you don't have to worry about Orihime, so I got a little sidetracked. She's just so damn cute, you know." Lily pinched the maid and she muffled the yelp into a small moan. Ichigo looked ready to keel over any minute. Tatsuki was sure he had not blinked at all for the last couple of minutes and started to wonder if he was still breathing.

"Where is Orihime?" Tatsuki asked again, feeling the beginning of a major headache. Things had become way too strange too fast. She was questioning a lesbian dominatrix about the whereabouts of her classmate, who had been kidnapped by a giant who had given her superpowers... Was she sure she wasn't dreaming this?

"I don't know, but I could find out. Are you sure you don't want to just wait for them to get back? I'm sure I could find ways to keep you... entertained." Lily caressed the maid's neck while she said this and she shot a fearful glance at Ichigo and a confused one at Tatsuki. Lily flicked the dial on the strangely shaped device and the maid jerked and buried her face into Lily's neck. Tatsuki had more than a decent idea what that device was and tried her best not to think about it. The maid was obviously embarrassed, but she wasn't an unwilling participant in what Lily was doing, so Tatsuki didn't think she should intervene. No matter how inappropriate it was.

"Just tell us where Orihime is!" Tatsuki screamed, finally losing her patience for this charade Lily had made this whole thing to be. Ichigo took a sudden raspy breath in and then continued being a staring statue of a horny teenager. Tatsuki gave Lily a sideways glance and she raised an eye brow in turn.

"Did you... do anything to him?" Tatsuki asked.

"No, I think that's just..." Lily waved her hand in the air vaguely. "System overload, so to speak."

They both decided to ignore him and continue in the subject of Orihime's whereabouts. Lily seemed tired to be talking about the whole thing already and only reluctantly agreed to start doing anything other than tease her little maid slave. Finally she just spilled her tea on the table and started chanting in a beautiful voice while holding the tips of her fingers in the spilled tea. The reflection on the spilled tea intensified at first and then disappeared altogether as an image of a crystal clear lake of some sort appeared on it. The image shifted and turned as Lily moved her fingers ever so slightly. Finally the image focused on the dark clad giant called Benjamin and Orihime attached to him. Benjamin had giant balck and red wings and he was making out with Orihime.

Tatsuki broke the table.

**Bezanthume**

"**What was that?" **Bezanthume asked Orihime as he detached himself from her lips. He had tried to come up with a way to say it wouldn't quite work with Aizen and all that, but they had ended up making out again. If he could actually remember how old he was he would feel childish about acting so much like a horny teenager. He looked over the lake and saw that something had caused it to ripple. He saw a telltale glow on the water surface and cursed Lilith and her curiosity to all kinds of hell, then started to think which ones he should actually send her.

"What is it?" Orihime asked, sounding dazed and annoyed. She was looking at the lake as well and wondered how big the fish had to be to make such a ripple. Bezanthume wondered if he should tell her that there were no fishes in the lake, but then decided against it, since it didn't really accomplish anything. Let her think it was a fish, if she so wishes. He did close his eyes and found Lilith's mind in the same room with a rather enraged Arisawa Tatsuki and a nearly comatose Kurosaki Ichigo.

"**Fuck you, Lilith..." **He had only been gone an hour and that bitch had found a way to wreck any plans he had during that time. And who was that mind with them, the one Lilith was playing with? Wait, I met her before...

Oh, no level of hell was enough for Lilith.

"**Okay, Princess. We'll be going back to your apartment now." **Bezanthume said evenly, trying to keep his anger in check. He walked over to his coat and folded it over his arm, thinking of ways to make Lilith pay for this. He then walked back over to a puzzled looking Orihime and started chanting a teleportation spell. He didn't trust himself not to crash into Orihime's apartment and kill Lilith straight away if he flew there. The symbols and runes danced around them and then the world disappeared and appeared again.

They were standing in front of Inoue Orihime's apartment building. He walked up the steps, trying not to set the whole building ablaze. He walked into Inoue Orihime's apartment and was greeted by a screaming Arisawa Tatsuki. She hit him a couple of times until she noticed Inoue Orihime, who was following him, quite confused about what was going on. He stopped in front of Lilith and he couldn't remember seeing a more scared angel.

"**Good day, Lilith." **He said and didn't care about the overwhelming anger in his voice. If the people in the room couldn't take it, then they should leave. Lilith just stared at him, opening and closing her mouth, trying to find an excuse to the captain of the 13 protection divisions in her lap, wearing a maid costume.

"Oh, Benny. Fancy seeing you here, I thought you were busy with Orihime and all that..." she paused, trying desperately to find a way out of the situation she'd gotten herself into. She both damned herself from giving into her desires and regretted that Bezanthume couldn't have noticed just a little later. She liked playing with Soi Fong and thought that in an hour or so she could have had a meal of a lifetime.

"**Yes, I was with her and we did get busy and it was quite enjoyable, but that was before I found out you have subjected a captain of these "shinigami" to your appetite. I'm sure you realize I am more than a little unhappy because of that." **Bezanthume said and everyone else in the room, including poor Soi Fong, was staring at him. He had not retracted his wings, since he doubted they would stay in anyways, with his power in turmoil like it was. He was angry and this time he had a valid reason. **"Unhand her."**

"But Benny, I'm almost done here, she's near the edge and if I could only –" Bezanthume wrenched Lilith's hands from around Soi Fong's body and found that Lilith had not lied about her being close to the edge, so to speak, but giving Lilith even the meal she had worked hard to prepare was too much, taking into account how thoroughly she had possibly fucked up his plans. Soi Fong was afraid of him and Bezanthume didn't like that, but he was still able to entice Lust in her momentarily to uncoil what Lilith had been building up in her and then eased some Sloth into her, so that she would fall asleep. He then handed her relaxed body to Orihime and Tatsuki.

"Spoilsport... I don't go around stopping you from drinking blood, you know." Lilith said, still not able to hold her tongue back. She knew that anything she said or did wouldn't stop him from punishing her, so she didn't bother holding her tongue back. With the people around her either unconscious or too dumbfounded to do anything Bezanthume started citing a long spell in his native language's old form, the one used for spells mostly. He raised his right hand in the air and set his left one on Lilith's head. She knew it was pointless to run and just let Bezanthume cite the spell. There was less chance of him screwing up and making it even force for her. Whether he meant to or not.

A crimson sphere started forming into Bezanthume's right hand as lines of runes and symbols appeared around Lilith and whirled in spherical lines before clamping themselves on Lilith's body. Gradually the runes and bits of writing appeared and covered more and more of Lilith's body. Lilith looked apathetic about the whole thing and just held her breath as the spell covered her head and mouth. The sphere on Bezanthume's right hand was glowing in a red tinge, but looked solid and real when he brought it to the now completely covered Lilith. The sphere turned blindingly bright and absorbed all of the spell words that covered Lilith, along with Lilith herself. Bezanthume was left with an ebony orb in the size of a bowling ball contain Lilith in a space outside of normal time. She would stay suspended until he calmed down and decided if he punished her and how.

"**She's perfectly fine; I just needed her out of the way." **Bezanthume said at Inoue Orihime's shocked expression. He then told her telepathically how she was suspended in stopped time, unlike how he had been trapped in an orb without such luxury, since that seemed to be the reason she was shocked at what he had done. He then turned to the rest of the people in the room and took note that they were all very confused. He set the orb on the low table and sat down. Okay, he was still angry, but either Arisawa Tatsuki or Kurosaki Ichigo was to blame. They had been concerned about their friend and Lilith had been the one to give them information they shouldn't have, just because she wanted an audience to wet her appetite.

He sighed deep and retracted his wings. He was quite sure he could keep them in now, since he had taken the one he was mad at out of the equation and the spell to do it had taken some of his power from him, so there was less to settle within him. He looked at Kurosaki Ichigo, who was still trying his hardest to not forget a single detail about what Lilith had done to Soi Fong in front of him, but was giving him suspicious glances. He hated the boy several times more than he had before and wondered if anyone would mind if he trapped him with Lilith in the orb... Let's say, for a hundred years. It might have been great for him for the first month or so, but Lilith wouldn't get tire that easily and when she did, she got sadistic.

Regrettably he could think of about five people who would mind if he did that, even if he made it so he was gone only a minute in this world. One of them being his Contractor didn't help matters either. He wrenched his attention away from Kurosaki Ichigo to stop himself from being made to undo whatever he would do if he didn't and concentrated on Arisawa Tatsuki.

Now, she was angry, so very angry at him. She had about a thousand questions to top it all off and expected to get her answers, no matter what. Now, he had nothing against strong-willed women, but they sure where annoying when they were angry and inquisitive.

Lucky for him Inoue Orihime was busy tending to the sleeping captain of the second division, so there was no one who had any real power over him to stop him from leaving and clearing his head before trying to sort through this mess. He stood up from the floor and thought for a second about taking Lilith's orb with him, but then decided against it, since he didn't know what he would do to it in his current state.

"**Look after that, would you?" **Bezanthume simply said and left the apartment. Kurosaki Ichigo too caught up in his own fantasies to stop him and Arisawa Tatsuki happened to be helping Inoue Orihime with Soi Fong at the moment he walked out. He walked down the stairs leading to Inoue Orihime apartment, up the stairs that led to his, walked through the apartment and stepped into his own pocket in reality. He set his coat on his bed, hurried through the armoury and through another door at the end of it before making many things explode and burn and die.

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**Okay, that was that and so on and so forth. Do tell me what you think and stuff, you know. Combustible lemons and all.**

'**Till next time, I guess!**

**Crazy Laughter**


	23. Past Sins

**Well, here it is! Another installment of the longest story I have ever written and I have no intention of stopping... Yeah, ran out of things to say, i guess. Read and review!  
**

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**Chapter Nineteen **

**Past Sins**

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So, Bezanthume had sneaked out when she wasn't looking and by the look he had in his eyes before he did and his obvious animosity towards Kurosaki-kun it was probably for the best. She could now somewhat understand his fierce protectiveness and his clear desire to gut Kurosaki-kun every time they saw each other. Now that Bezanthume had returned her childish infatuation with his own seemingly honest feelings. Now that she went over what had happened in her head it was clear that what had happened was as much of a surprise to him as it had been to her. He had told her that he would stay by her side as long as she would live, probably just stating the fact that the "contract" bound him to her and as soon as she croaked he would be free to do whatever he wanted, but at the time it had sounded really sweet. At least he had not lied to her about anything, it was mostly her own mind that had sugar coated it so much at the time.

Wow, when did she get so cynical? True, it all made sense and was probably true, but why didn't she allow herself to be blissful in ignorance of that fact. She was pretty sure that the old her would have done so, so what exactly had changed?

"Orihime? Orihime, snap out of it and tell me what he did to you? Are you hurt?" She suddenly noticed Tatsuki's face hovering in front of her and she flinched when she remembered where she was and what had happened. The unknown girl Lilith had been doing ungodly things to was changing her clothes in the bathroom and she had a feeling of authority to her that told Orihime that what had upset Bezanthume wasn't what Lilith had been doing, just _who _she had been doing it to. Orihime had seen part of captain's coat in the bag with her clothes, so she presumed this was the female captain she had seen up in the execution hill, Soi Fong was her name if her memory served her correctly.

Orihime carefully stepped out of Tatsuki's grasp and made sure Kurosaki-kun was still reeling from what he had seen happen in front of him. He might have spiritual powers, but he was also a guy and their minds had a tendency to shutdown when suddenly represented with hot angel on tsundere action. Pathetic, when you actually thought about it, what had she exactly liked about this idiotic oaf again?

No, Kurosaki-kun was nice and amazing and strong and her own thoughts weren't even sounding like her anymore! What the hell had happened to make her think things in such a bitter and cynical way? This wasn't her; did Bezanthume do something to her when they made out? Tatsuki seemed to have changed after the whole incident between them, now that she thought about it. What could Bezanthume possibly have to gain from changing her personality in any way? It was her old personality that was more complacent, so why would he do something to make her more cynical - and dare she say – smart? Sure, she could study and had a pretty good memory, but when it came to lateral thinking and planning ahead, she was at a loss. Well, if Bezanthume had really somehow boosted her IQ, then it would be interesting to play a match of shogi against Tatsuki again...

No, why was she just accepting this? If Bezanthume had really done something to change her base instincts and character, then she should feel betrayed and violated! Who was he to say that the parts of her he didn't like were inferior and go change them? Of all the self-indulgent, egoistical and downright _wrong _things to do, this would have to be up there with... with something really, really bad. Like kicking a baby, or something!

No, that was still pretty far from it, you shouldn't kick babies... never ever.

It was still a pretty dickish move from his part! If it ever happened at all, that is!

Yeah, well, it was not like she had any proof to back up her outrage and it wasn't like she had been stupid before, just easily distracted. It could just be all the messed up things going on in her life at the moment. Well, that sounded more plausible when she thought abo –

"ORIHIME! SNAP. OUT. OF IT!" And Tatsuki was now shaking her by the shoulders, probably worried she had brain damage from whatever she thought that Bezanthume had done to her. For all Orihime knew, she did, but now she was more doubtful of it. She should keep Kurosaki-kun and Tatsuki here until Bezanthume came back from doing whatever he did to calm down. She should probably keep Soi Fong here as well, just in case.

"Pl-pl-pl-please s-s-s-stop s-s-shaking me-e-e-e-e!" Orihime stuttered out, grinning to herself about how funny it sounded. She was the first to admit she was childish compared to others of her age group, but now she was feeling kind of embarrassed about it. Just having your first kiss, and the make out session after that, wouldn't mature you this much, would it? Tatsuki did stop shaking her and Orihime looked both of the people in the room in the eye, trying to see if her perspective of them had changed in a way that would warrant for her theory of mental manipulation. As she calmed herself and looked past the annoyance she had over Lilith and these people interrupting Bezanthume and her, she did see them as Tatsuki-chan and Kurosaki-kun.

"I'm sure you are confused about all of this, all of you. We should sit down and talk this over. Kurosaki-kun, pick up that orb, I'll fix the table while making some tea for the four of us." Orihime said, dozens of different situations going through her head. In her opinion she had more time to think about what to do, if she could just get everyone to sit down with a cup of tea. How much could she tell them? The fact that Bezathume had sealed Lilith in that orb right in front of Kurosaki-kun and Tatsuki meant he was already okay with them knowing he something more than a normal human and Lilith's words before being shut away pointed towards Bezanthume being the culprit in the attack on Yuzu, so should she at least correct the misconception of Bezanthume being a vampire? Then again, it could take a while for Kurosaki-kun to make the connection and if she were to mislead him by only telling him that Bezanthume was responsible for what happened in the hospital and Yuzu's fast recovery...

"Oh, you're freaking hopeless!" Tatsuki exclaimed as Kurosaki-kun had trouble lifting the orb from the remnants of the table. She swatted his hands away and lifted the orb next to her with no more effort than lifting a bowling ball, when Kurosaki-kun couldn't even move it. It was probably because the caster of the spell had ill feelings towards Kurosaki-kun that prevented him from lifting it and since it was quite clear Bezanthume had no such aggression towards Tatsuki, she could move it with relative ease. Orihime activated her healing aura and left the two fairies to fix the table while she went into the kitchen and started making tea. For a second she did wonder how she knew that Kurosaki-kun couldn't lift the orb just because Bezanthume didn't like him, but she just dismissed as knowing how Bezanthume liked messing with Kurosaki-kun's pride.

She heard the door to her bathroom open and then felt a sudden build up of reiatsu, probably meaning Soi Fong was trying to get away from the apartment without having to deal with them anymore. Her right hand flicked a finger and Soi Fong landed on her ass at the doorway of the kitchen, instead of rushing out the door. She had just learned how to use this power and now she was using it almost subconsciously, only having to think about it and make a small movement with her right hand. Either Bezanthume was a good teacher, or she was a good student and she decided not to think about it in any more detail for now. She would have to question Bezanthume about a lot of things, but now she should focus on keeping the three people that knew about Bezanthume's secret in her apartment

"Do sit down, Captain Soi Fong, I'm sure we'll find something to discuss. Tea will be ready in just a minute." The look Soi Fong gave Orihime was furious, but also analytical and confused. She knew she should get out, but didn't know how she was just knocked over before using shunpo, so she decided there were too many unknowns for her to try escaping again just yet, at least that's what Orihime thought was going on in her head. Ultimately, the petite Captain let out a defeated sigh and sat down next to Tatsuki, with the ebony orb between them.

"So, what are you a captain of?" Tatsuki asked Soi Fong, trying to fill the awkward silence. Soi Fong gave Tatsuki a murderous look and they tried to stare each other down right until Orihime came back with four cups of green tea. Soi Fong muttered a thank you and then started observing the three of them from behind her own cup, using it as an excuse not to answer Tatsuki's question.

"She's a captain of the second division of the 13 protection squads of shinigamis. I think she's also the head of ninjas, adjacent to the second division. But then again, you can just think she's a ninja, an awesome one at that. Either she or Benjamin can answer you for a reason of her being here, since it certainly didn't happen the first time around." Soi Fong stared at Orihime with widened eyes after she stopped talking. She was probably asking herself how a human in the mortal realm could know of the structure of the 13 protection squads in such detail. At least now she had a reason to stay in the apartment, even if it was just to find out why Orihime knew such things and how.

"What do you mean by "_The first time around"?_" Tatsuki asked, putting down her cup of tea. Soi Fong glanced at her and then back at Orihime, probably seeing it as a chance to get information without getting directly involved, very ninja of her. Now, should Orihime spill the beans on the contract between her and Bezanthume, the thing that had made it possible for her to travel back in time? Well, they'd figure it out anyway and it seemed like the past had already deviated from the one she knew greatly.

"Time travel." Orihime simply said, she didn't really know the mechanics of what Bezanthume had done, but she knew that she ended up in the place of her past self because of it, so that's what it basically was. She simply couldn't go into more detail, so she just hoped they would not press her on it. All of them looked rather taken aback by what she said, but they didn't look surprised either. After seeing Bezanthume in all of his glory it seemed more than plausible.

"Who is he? Why is he after us?" Kurosaki-kun asked, finally getting a word out of his mouth, but boy was his question vague. How was she supposed to answer that? Sure, Bezanthume had been calling himself a demon, but that was vague and she didn't really get it. It seemed more like Bezanthume was just trying to make himself look like the bad guy on purpose. Hell, he was pretty fearsome if he lost his temper, but from all she'd seen of him he wasn't as bad as he made himself out to be.

"_He isn't after you, you egoistical little shit."_

Suddenly the three of them were staring at her with surprise and shock in their faces. Were her fairies out? No, they were not, so why were they looking at her like that? Well, whatever..._ "_He calls himself a demon, but I have a feeling there's more to it."

"Orihime, what was that just now?" Tatsuki asked, sounding frightened.

"What was what?"

"_Mind your own business, nosy little bitch!"_

"That! Why are you doing that?" Tatsuki asked, obviously freaked out by something. Now that she was forced to think about it, there had been a strange lapse in time just now and just before the three of them started staring at her strangely.

"What has that bastard done to you?" Kurosaki-kun practically shouted and Orihime could feel a foreign sense of anger rising up in her.

"_He didn't do anything, you condescending..." Slam! "Bastard!"_

When she came to Kurosaki-kun had a bloody nose and had retreated against the wall. There was a smudge of blood on the table between them, so she must have slammed his head onto the table while she was out.

_He lied to you; he downright betrayed you and you'll still make excuses for him? He deserves anything and everything Bezanthume's going to do to him._

"What? Who are you? What's he going to do to Kurosaki-kun?" Her friends and Soi Fong were staring at her sudden psychotic episode in shocked silence, but Orihime had clearly heard a voice in her head just now.

_I don't really know, but I'm sure it involves the two of them hitting each other, or Bezanthume just beating him to a bloody pulp, but I'm sure he'll try to make it amusing._

"What the hell is going on? I'm going to kill Copperwail for this!" Kurosaki shouted, seeming rather peeved at the notion he couldn't fix the situation by punching something.

"**Oh, getting suicidal, are we?" **Bezanthume walked in through the door and loomed over them in all his grinning glory. He didn't have his wings out, but the fangs and red eyes made him look just as inhuman. Kurosaki-kun tried to rush him, but after one fluid and surprisingly dexterous manoeuvre for someone who was practically a giant Kurosaki-kun was pinned to the floor with his right arm twisted around his back nearly to the breaking point. Bezanthume sighed and looked up at Soi Fong. Soi Fong flinched back and reached for her sword, but didn't attack.

"**I apologize for what Lilith did to you and I leave deciding a fitting punishment for her in your hands. I am in part responsible for what happened, since she wouldn't have been here if I hadn't rescued her from her own imprisonment. You'll just have to -"**

"You were the one who attacked Yuzu!" Kurosaki-kun shouted and struggled to get free, as much as he could without breaking his own arm. Bezanthume pressed Kurosaki-kun's head harder on the floor and then there was a sickening crunch as he dislocated Kurosaki-kun's arm.

"**It is rude to interrupt people, Kurosaki Ichigo. As I was saying: just touch the orb and you can dictate whatever punishment you wish."**

"Now wait a god damn minute!" Tatsuki-chan exclaimed and slammed the table to get Bezanthume's attention. Bezanthume turned his head towards her in surprise, as if barging in and dislocating Kurosaki-kun's arm was the most natural thing in the world. "You can't just barge in here and beat up Ichigo! You're going to –"

"**I can and I did. I'm going to keep beating him for a while, but that's another story we won't be getting into right now. You'll just have to follow me if you want your answers." **After declaring this Bezanthume just got up and dragged Kurosaki-kun with him by his dislocated arm. Kurosaki-kun was sweating profoundly and seemed to be in too much pain to put up any kind of struggle. Strange how Orihime hadn't jumped in to defend Kurosaki-kun, or even try to stop Bezanthume, now that she thought about it.

"Hey, don't you dare walk away when I'm talking to you, bastard!" Tatsuki-chan shouted, with veins popping up in her forehead. She stormed out of Orihime's apartment after Bezanthume and Orihime had to wonder why she was so calm about all this. She drank her tea and then started to collect the abandoned cups from the table. Soi Fong was staring at the orb next to her, probably trying to decide if she should touch it at all. For all she knew it was a trap set up by Bezanthume to get her out of the picture. Orihime washed the cups and set them back in the cupboard while the small captain pondered over her choices.

"Is this normal for you?" Soi Fong asked from the doorway, making Orihime jump from surprise. She had expected Soi Fong to let herself out quietly, like a ninja she was, so her talking was kind of surprising. Orihime turned to the short girl, or maybe she should be called a woman, since she was centuries old, and raised an eyebrow at the question. "A winged demon just trapped a self-proclaimed angel in an ebony orb with some kind of magic I have no idea about and then beat and kidnapped one of your friends and you're alright with that?"

"_He's always been like that, the arrogant prick!"_

"He's cruel, violent and guilty of unforgivable sins..." Orihime said, feeling a strange conflict of emotions inside her. "And then he goes and says we're getting cheese!"

Hate, fear, guilt, anxiety, sadness and love were all in turmoil inside her. She felt like everything that had happened to her in the last few days was crashing down on her and she wasn't going come out of it unscathed. They had all died, they had come for her and they had been killed and the bodies burned right in front of her eyes. Her hope for a normal life had been crushed and spat upon right in front of her.

_So we do have something in common, after all._

"SHUT UP! I'm not listening to you!"

_You listened to Bezanthume._

"That... That was different, I was desperate!"

_And what would you call yourself now? You're being trampled over in any turn and you just swallow up all that resentment and hate? Sure, that's the polite thing to do, but it's starting to piss me off. I think we both should say a couple of choice words to our dear Bezanthume._

"Who are you? Why does it sound like you _know_ him?" Orihime asked out loud, avoiding using Bezanthume's name around strangers, since he seemed to be sensitive about disclosing it to anyone. She had a faint recollection reading that you have hold over a demon if you know their name, but it was a fantasy book, so it could just be he was sensitive, or it was a cultural thing.

_My name is Ophelia, right now I'm a part of you, but actually explaining what I am would take too long. Hell, I'm not even that sure of that myself, so our best bet is to go ask Bezanthume._

"This is so confusing..."

_And we know who has the answers, don't we?_

Soi Fong was backing away slowly from her, glancing at the ebony orb on the floor as she did. She was probably thinking if she should grab the orb on her way out or not and that was very ninja of her, indeed. Then again, it was relatively easy for Orihime to push her body next to her by creating a kind of gravitational pull between the two locations and the look on Soi Fong's face when she noticed the girl that had been having a psychotic episode just a second ago was looming over her with murder in her eyes was rather amusing.

Then again, Orihime would have thought these kinds of thoughts to be strangely morbid, but she was too busy trying to figure out what Bezanthume had not told her. Soi Fong used shunpo to get away from her and Orihime left her to her own devices. The ninja wouldn't attack someone whose powers she knew little to nothing about and that had just proven to be able to move in a speed possibly rivalling her own.

"_Close the door on your way out, Soi Fong. Don't worry about the orb, He might be many things, but he's not the type to use such underhanded methods against women." _Orihime walked out the door, feeling more confident and powerful she had ever felt. She both felt that she had always had this power and that she had grown into trust it, but also that it was something new and foreign. There would have been a logical impossibility there, but Orihime's mind was too preoccupied with piecing together all the things Bezanthume had lied about and left out.

Then she started thinking of the times he'd bullied her into something, or hit her because of his quick temper and pride. The times when the insanity he'd brought into her life had made things worse and hurt people around her followed and Orihime really didn't have time to think that the anger rising up in her didn't feel like her own.

**Hitsugaya Toushirou**

He had work to do back in the office, but he found himself unable to simply abandon this girl. It had been his actions that had made her act so recklessly, so he should at least wait to see if she was going to be okay. Of course, he could ask one of his subordinates to stay and make sure the girl was taken care of, but this girl seemed the type to take something like that personally and after seeing what she could do he really didn't want to agitate her. As to _what _she did he had no idea, but he reckoned it was some old and arcane form of kidou, or just her own innate ability. Not all spirits showed spiritual power in the shape of a zanpakutou, but it was the most common manifestation.

"Captain Hitsugaya." Came a calm soothing voice, but it still made Hitsugaya jump up in attention. He had not figured out what it was about Captain Unohana, but almost everyone was terrified of her. She was the most accomplished healer in all of Seireitei and hadn't hurt anyone even during sparring with her squad members, but even the 11th squad didn't dare cross her, with the possible exception of Zaraki.

"Yes?" Toushirou simply said, not sure if she was talking to him because of the girl or not and felt inexplicably nervous that was the reason. He had just met the girl a few hours ago and brought her in the 4th squad hospital because she caused herself harm. Why would anyone read anything else into it? Could it be because he stayed with her? Of course he would do that, it was the polite thing to do, wasn't it? Maybe it was a little too polite, taking into account he was a captain and had dozens of other things to attend to,punishijng Matsumoto for letting this happen for one...

"Would you care to tell me how a young ryoka like her ended up downing a bottle of spiritually enlaced sake?" Unohana asked, with a smile on her face, but with an edge in her voice that told the child in Toushirou he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. What did he mean a ryoka? Well, taken into account what the girl had proved to be capable of, it wasn't that impossible, but her high and mighty attitude was as Noble as it got.

"What do you mean she's a ryoka? Isn't she just a child of some Noble family?" The girl being a ryoka would mean he had harboured a criminal inside Seireitei, but how was it possible for a ryoka to sneak into Seireitei without being picked up by 12th division's equipment. Kurotsuchi had sent every captain a device that showed where each and every of their subordinates were and what they were doing at any given time when Kyouraku had suspected the capabilities of his division. Nemu had collected the devices back after a week, but now everyone was trying their hardest to forget that a freak like Kurotsuchi was watching them every day of the week, everywhere, anytime.

"Her spiritual composition is not that of a spirit, or a shinigami. I do not know what she is, but she is not a spirit that a shinigami escorted into Rukongai, that is for sure. Tell me about the sake, Captain Hitsugaya?" Was she accusing him of something? Harbouring a criminal was a given, but the feeling of hostility was a little too much taking that into account. He had brought in a girl with alcohol poisoning... a corgeous girl his age, to make matters worse... that had been drinking in his office... Oh, why would Unohana think that? He would never do- yeah, Unohana didn't know that and the girl being a ryoka would have made it simpler to leave no traces. A quick spirit burial and off they went, mind scrubbed and reincarnated into Rukongai. Why was he thinking this and why was it so easy to know why Unohana suspected him?

"She kind of stole my sword when we first met... I had to chase her. I was hospitalized, as you know and then I find her and Matsumoto boozing it up in my office." That was the truth and it was up to Unohana to decide if she believed him or not. Toushirou felt guilty for letting this happen, but Unohana suspecting him of what he thought she was suspecting him of was just insulting.

"Ah, so that's why she was holding your sword when Matsumoto-san brought you in. Why would Matsumoto make a child drink alcohol?" Unohana asked, giving him another suspicious glance, but it seemed like she had believed him when he told the truth.

"I don't know!" Toushirou shouted in frustration and as if on que, that's when a healer slid out of the room they were treating the ryoka in question and hit the opposite wall hard enough to be knocked out and crack the wall. Unohana stormed into the room with Toushirou right behind her heels and what they saw surprised them both, but Toushirou already knew to expect the unexpected when it came to this girl.

That expensive looking cloak that was too big for her was now in the shape of a tall figure, with long and wide stripes of fabric whipping around it, knocking back anyone who came close. Toushirou had to presume the girl was inside the cloak, now being protected by whatever defence mechanism one of the healers had triggered by doing something the cloak didn't approve of. Unohana rushed to retrieve any of her subordinates that were still in the cloak's range and then check their injuries. As soon as all the healers and nurses were out of range the cloak's tendrils retreated and the cloak grew in size, but stopped moving. A tall and ominous figure loomed over them and even though it had no eyes, Toushirou was certain it was glaring at him.

"_GET OVER HERE!" _A gruff male voice shouted and one of the cloaks tendrils shot out at Toushirou. Sure, he should have been able to dodge it and have time to spare, but it felt like he was being pulled towards the tall figure even before the tendril of cloth grabbed the front of his robes. The next few seconds were just as disorienting as the time when this same girl had punched him into his own office. Everything twisted, turned and then turned upright again before he fell onto what he presumed to be the floor. He shot up and reached for his sword and once again the girl succeeded in surprising him.

He was standing in a grand hall that seemed to be carved into a side of a mountain from the look of the wall to behind him. There were dozens of doors on this cliff face and he had just fallen out of one of them. The heavy wooden door slammed shut behind him and there was the distinct voice of it locking itself. His eyes were drawn to the ceiling and he estimated the room to be at least fifteen meters high and supported by grand looking pillars by the walls. The room was huge and the high panelled windows nearly reached to the ceiling all gave out to a different kind of landscape, which made the room seem sectioned off.

"Ah, Blondie! Come over here and grab a controller!" The girl's voice echoed out from somewhere in the room. He had been too preoccupied with the room's impossibilities that he hadn't noticed how messy it was. There were bookcases littered throughout the room and some of them had heavy and leather backed books and some had small colourful books that some of his subordinates bought from the human world, manga. There were countless copies of these books littered around on the floor along with some of the big leathery books. There seemed to be no logical order as to how the bookcases and clutters of reading material were laid out in the floor and you could get lost quite easily. There were also quite a number of different kinds of chairs scattered around the bookcases and other junk he couldn't name.

"Blondie, hurry up!" The girl's voice rung out again and Toushirou placed it somewhere in the section lighted by the window letting out to a landscape with a red sky and ominously dark clouds behind the distant mountains. He would rather not think about all the ways this place was impossible, so he averted his eyes and started to walk towards the girl's voice. It didn't take long for him to find what he was looking for when he entered the red section of the room. There was a structure that was made out of bookcases where there was artificial light coming out of and it didn't surprise him to find the girl there. It shouldn't have surprised him to find that the space was considerably bigger on the inside than it seemed to be on the outside, but it did.

"Ah, there you are! Let's start thinking with portals!" The girl shouted excitedly as she threw a black piece of plastic at him with all kinds of small appendages on it. There was a big television in the room along with an assortment of other electronic devices he didn't know the name of, but he presumed they were machines designed for entertainment purposes as the girl busied over them and the television screen came to life.

"Portals?" Toushirou asked, grabbing the thing the girl had thrown him the same way she was holding hers, still unsure what the device was and what he was supposed to do with it. Then again, he wasn't sure why he was just going along with this and where the hell he was at the moment. He presumed it was some kind of dimensional rift the girl had brought into existence with her strange power and it was probably impossible to leave the place without the girl's consent...

"Yes, Portals, plural. I already played the single-player campaign and I can't wait to see how GladOs torments a pair of robots. You're a boy, so you should be better at three dimensional thinking than I am, it's hardwired into your brain." The girl said this very fast and had to lean in close for him to hear her over the television. Toushirou happened to be inhaling when she leaned in and noticed that the girl smelled fresh and spicy, kind of like peppermint, but not quite. The image of morning due by a moonlit pond flashed through his mind, along with a strange word; _Rezaliel._

The girl was looking at him angrily, probably not appreciating the fact he wasn't listening to her telling him how to control the game. Toushirou apologised and was genuinely afraid as the girl stared at him with angry eyes for a few seconds.

"You're the blue one, Toushirou." The girl said coldly and turned her attention back to the game. All of her earlier enthusiasm was gone and she looked more serious she had ever looked. Toushirou admitted to not understanding a thing about the fairer sex, but he had a feeling there was more going on than he was aware of.

**Kurosaki Karin**

Half the school had been crowding around them nearly the whole day, asking if the rumours that Yuzu had been attacked by a vampire were true or not. The first thing Karin did was call the people who though that idiots, but then that bastard Hanayama started asking more questions and as Yuzu answered each one honestly, everyone was convinced it had been a vampire. They had been the school's little celebrities for the day, so it was kind of weird that there wasn't anyone pestering them when the strange woman walked into the playground.

The woman was dressed strangely and had some rather visible scars on the side of her face, but Karin wouldn't have paid her much attention if she hadn't made a beeline towards Yuzu the moment she walked in through the gates of the school. The older boys on the yard were staring at the woman for a whole other reason she was, since the woman was wearing a leather jacket that was too tight for her in the chest and her breasts were battling the leather buckles that were keeping the jacket closed. The woman was tall and the scars only accented the feel of danger around her. Karin started running towards Yuzu as the woman quickened her pace as Yuzu noticed her.

"Uhm, hello, can I help you?" Yuzu asked the woman as Karin reached them. The woman didn't answer and only stared at Yuzu, blinking slowly. Even though the woman seemed mentally challenged, she also seemed dangerous and Karin stepped in between the two, pushing Yuzu back. There was a teacher walking over to them, but she wasn't hurrying to them. It was probably the red hair that made her think this woman was a relative, or something. As the woman's icy cold glare turned to her in turn, it banished all thoughts of the woman being mentally challenged and Karin was just about to tell Yuzu to run into the school when she found a rough and hard hand clasp down on her wrist. Before she knew it she was being dragged towards the gate of the school, along with Yuzu, who was carried by the waist instead on the woman's other arm.

The teacher ran over to them and tried to stop the woman, but the strange woman paid her no mind and simply kept walking when the distressed teacher stepped in her path. The teacher was knocked away without the woman even slowing down or looking at her. The woman kept on walking in her steady and brisk pace with two struggling children not making miss a step. Karin had no idea what the woman was doing and when she walked into a five-story office building and started up the stairs, ignoring the receptionist's protests. When the woman forced her way through the door to the roof things got even stranger.

The woman turned back to the door and closed it with the hand she was using to drag Karin around and then pulled her back from the door. Then there was a flash of flames and the door was red hot and melted into its hinges. After this the woman let Karin and Yuzu go, since they had no way of getting off the roof without breaking their legs.

Things got really weird when the woman took off her clothes. She did this while watching them, but it was with that icy stare, so Karin didn't think she was going to do...something to them, at least, but the fact that the woman didn't want to get her jacket dirty unnerved her. When she took off the jacket Karin noted more scars on her torso and strong muscles on her arms and abdomen, no wonder her grip had been like a vice, she was built like an amazon.

Then again, things took a turn for the supernatural when the woman untied the piece of cloth she had worn as a skirt and unveiled the tail she had wrapped around one of her legs. It was thin and sectioned off and looked like the armoured version of the whip-like tails of iguanas, but it seemed to be more nimble than them, since she was able to pick up the jacket from the roof with it. The woman calmly folded the jacket in the centre of the piece of cloth and then tied the ends together before picking the bundle up with her tail. And then the woman turned back to them and disappeared into thin air. Karin really didn't see that one coming, but she wasn't surprised when she started to hear sounds of something big and heavy moving around them. She had no way off the room and what this woman planned with them was unclear, but if this woman was anything like the thing in the cemetery, then she would be its primary target, since she could see ghosts better, or something.

Just as she told Yuzu to stay still and took a few steps away from her something huge grabbed her and just for the moment it held her she could see a huge reptilian thing with bat-like wings. Then she was hurtling hundreds of feet in the air and screaming her head off. Sometimes she cursed the fact she had been born into the Kurosaki family instead of a normal one and it was definitely times like this; when she was being thrown into the air by an honest to god dragon. Seriously, who else had that problem, like, ever?

Just as her flight reached its apex she caught a glimpse of the unconscious (at least she hoped) body of Yuzu catching up with her. Just as they both started to fall again a pair of huge scaly hands grabbed the two sisters. They were more like a collection of talons than hands, but there was a thumb and four longer, sectioned "fingers". She saw the town she had grown up in pass under her as the dragon circled the town, hopefully looking for something other than a place to drop them.

Somehow, she was sure this was connected to her brother.

**Kurosaki Ichigo**

"**Urahara Kisuke!" **Benjamin Copperwail boomed out in his inhuman voice as he dragged Ichigo into the small storefront by his dislocated arm. The dislocated joint radiated pain through his whole body with each tug Copperwail gave it and Ichigo had been unable to fight back to the huge man leading him into the store, despite Tatsuki's loud protests along the way. Now Copperwail soun him around and grabbed his shoulder with his other hand while holding the dislocated arm to Ichigo's side. Ichigo realized what he was going to do in time to grit his teeth, but he still let out a scream as his shoulder was forced back into place.

"Oh my, if it isn't Kurosaki-kun and Copperwail-kun, what brings you to my humble little establishment?" Urahara sung out in a cheery voice with that ridiculous fan covering his face. Copperwail shook Ichigo by his sore shoulder as he answered the man.

"**You have a way to give this kid his powers back, right. Let's get this over with." **Copperwail said and Urahara paused only for a second before leading them to a trap door at the back of the store. What the hell, Copperwail knew Urahara? Copperwail walked over to the trap door and dropped down, but when Ichigo tried to follow Urahara stopped him and suggested using the ladder. The great big "Boom!" from the depths of the trap door suggested that there was an impossibly deep space under Urahara's little shop. Urahara jumped in after Copperwail and so did a black cat, but Ichigo had enough reason not to break every bone in his body because of his pride, so when he did get down Copperwail was shooting the ground in the space under Urahara's shop with something coming out of his hands and there was also a huge man wearing an apron in standing next to him, seemingly instructing him.

"Now, Kurosaki-kun..." Ichigo had barely enough time turn towards Urahara's voice before his cane was penetrating his forehead and his soul was yanked out of his body. There was more resistance than when he was a shinigami and the chain was coming out of his chest. He was a normal human soul now. It was hard to breathe and the chain ached whenever he moved. "We'll have to hurry through lesson #1, but if Copperwail-kun is correct, it should be possible. Put these on, damage to your spiritual body at this point would be unwise."

Urahara threw a pair of boxing gloves and headgear at his feet and he put them on, not questioning why or how he knew how to put them on. Then a girl about the age of his sisters walked out behind a rock wearing a mushroom-like hat and boxing gloves. The way she wore her hair and her posture hinted at her being timid, but she was also continuously glancing at Copperwail and trying not to turn her back to him.

"All you'll have to do is hit Ururu here once. She won't make it easy for you." And that's when Ichigo's head was nearly knocked clean off as the girl charged him. He was able to step back from the right hook and hurried to try and get some distance between him and the girl. The girl was faster than him and he could barely even keep up with her movements with his eyes. He had to keep up his guard and keep backing away from the girl's charges, long enough for him to get her timing and then slip past when she charges again, just like... Wait...

He had the strongest feeling of déjà vu he'd ever had. He did just as he had planned and he felt a surge of adrenaline surge through him as the girl called Ururu missed him just barely. He would freaking die if one of her punches would hit. On the fifth time she charged at him with her fist raised up by her head he stepped in and grazed her cheek with a nearly immovable fist, but with her speed her cheek did get nicked a little. Suddenly the girl was standing on his outstretched arm and already had her leg drawn back to kick him in the face. _Here it comes, _Ichigo thought and gritted his teeth.

"**Ururu!" **Copperwail's inhumanly deep voice shouted out and the girl retreated in clear terror, forgetting about hitting Ichigo back. Ichigo turned his attention towards Copperwail's voice and that might have been the reason why he didn't see Urahara sneaking next to him and breaking the chain coming out of his chest with a meat cleaver he's conjured up somewhere. It hurt in an unnatural and sickening way and he felt more vulnerable than ever after the line to his physical body was severed. Urahara then promptly launched him in the air and he ended leaning backwards on the deep hole Copperwail had created by the collar of his shirt. Copperwail smirked at him as he dangled Ichigo over the edge with no visible effort.

"**Look at you, you're pathetic. I could blow your spiritual body to pieces with just a flick of my hand" **Copperwail then turned his head upwards and in a few seconds something of gargantuan size crashed through the ceiling of the space under Urahara's shop. Ichigo heard how Urahara shouted obscenities somewhere, but what caught most of his interest was what exactly was crashing through the ceiling. Copperwail didn't seem surprised in the least, so was Ichigo supposed to believe this bastard had a dragon on his side as well? Who the hell was this guy?

Then the dragon folded its huge wings and set down what it had been holding in its hands. Two figures; one limp and seeming lifeless and one shaking and afraid. Why would Copperwail have a dragon bring his sisters here? Why would he –

"**Ah, I was getting hungry." **Copperwail said with a widening smirk on his face as he pulled Ichigo a little closer, grinning wide enough for Ichigo to definitely see his fangs. **"I wonder what Karin will taste like..."**

Before Ichigo had a chance to grab him and try to beat him senseless, Copperwail let go of Ichigo's shirt and he fell into the deep and dark hole. The last thing he saw before the impact and the unconsciousness that followed was Copperwail turning away from the hole with a predatory smirk on his face.

**Bezanthume**

If that didn't motivate him to hurrying up, then nothing would. Bezanthume raised a hand over the hole and then used his power to alter the way time flowed inside the hole. Three days would be the limit and the time dilation would end at the last hour of the third day, but, the rest of the time would pass within a single hour. He didn't have the time or patience to spend several days grooming an idiot who rushed into battles he's almost certain to lose. The kid was brave and all, but he was more stupid than anything else, thinking his power was something extraordinary.

"**Now, I'm sorry about the crude invitation, ladies, but I had little choice in the matter." **Bezanthume said to the only conscious Kurosaki sister, Kurosaki Karin. She looked absolutely terrified and Bezanthume had to admit that Filia's true appearance was rather intimidating, not to mention himself. He motioned for Filia to move away from the two sisters and the dragon retreated to one of the corners of the rectangular space and curled up to rest. Kurosaki Karin immediately moved to her unconscious sister and tried to shake her awake.

"**She is alive, the stress of being kidnapped by a dragon just accented her already apparent anaemia and she is unconscious. Do not worry; I do not intend to hurt her, this time." **Bezanthume said to the distressed girl and the look she shot back to him was so intelligent and furious that Bezanthume had a hard time believing this girl was related to the idiot he had just thrown in a hole. **"Yes, I admit to being the one who attacked your sister a while back and I am sorry, but the alternative wouldn't have been pleasant for any of us."**

"What do you want?" Kurosaki Karin asked while holding her sister. The girl was clearly terrified, but there was strength in her eyes that Bezanthume could respect. Her brother might have more in terms of power, but this girl had mental fortitude Kurosaki Ichigo could learn from. Why couldn't it have been one of the sisters with the supernatural powers, instead?

"**Well, I initially wanted you brought here just to give your brother some incentive to get stronger. He has power, but he's still just a snot nosed brat, he needed the incentive." **Bezanthume explained truthfully. There was no point in lying to the girl, since all that mattered was how Kurosaki Ichigo viewed the situation. Actually, it was better for him if the siblings understood the situation, since Inoue Orihime would frown upon forcefully knocking the two girls out. **"But to be completely honest, I wanted you here for me to drink your blood. As you might have guessed, I attacked your sister out of **_**need, **_**not desire and I happen to need a refill soon."**

"_Bezanthume!"_ Inoue Orihime's voice boomed out with a very angry tone. At the mention of his true name, and the idiocy of Inoue Orihime just blurting it out like that, Bezanthume immediately turned towards the voice and saw Inoue Orihime falling from the entrance to the underground space and surprisingly land softly on her feet, supposedly using her newfound telekinesis to dampen her fall. She must have been a natural to instinctively apply it to real world situations.

"**What is it, Prin –" **He couldn't finish his sentence as his ribcage was cracked in several places as Inoue Orihime clenched her right fist. The healing process started instantaneously, but it was still very painful.

"_Say my name!" _Inoue Orihime shouted as she was walking over to where he was. There was a strange confidence in the way she walked and the look she had in her eyes was more hostile than ever. This was strange, what could have made Inoue Orihime act so unlike her old self? Her life must have been turned upside down by his appearance and influence, but this was still too sudden. She had issues, but she didn't seem prone to developing multiple personalities.

"**Now, Inoue Orihime, why are you –" **Now his left arm was twisted in its socket enough to have it hang by a thread of flesh if he wouldn't have caught it and held it in place. Inoue Orihime was not this brutal, she would be on the ground gagging, so what was going on? Was she really that out of touch with the potency of her new power?

"_Say my name!" _She shouted again, as if Bezanthume hadn't heard her the first time. Maybe it hadn't been too soon for a mental breakdown after all. It could just be that the kind and tolerant Inoue Orihime was a role she had forced herself to grow into.

"**What are you –"**

"_I have a name, you know."_

"_**I am aware."**_

"_So, why don't you ever call me be by it? Calling me Princess is cute and all, but I'm starting to suspect you don't remember my name at all."_

"_**Knowing someone's name gives you a certain amount of power over that person. It would be rude and irresponsible to go around spreading it recklessly. There are people who can accomplish much with just that power."**_

"_Is this a long story, since I have to be somewhere in a few hours."_

"_**Hey, you asked, Princess!"**_

Bezanthume suddenly found himself on one knee on the ground and Inoue Orihime was three steps closer. What was that just now, another one of his seizures, maybe, but why had Inoue Orihime triggered it. The timing was too convenient otherwise. Could it be as simple as his physical damage? No, his earlier ones hadn't been triggered by anything like that. What exactly was going on here?

"_You bastard! I trusted you!" _Inoue Orihime shouted as she struck the hand with the ring down in a slashing motion. A deep gash appeared on his chest and he could feel his ribs digging into his lungs and heart. Anything other than a demon would be on the floor dead by now, but with the complete control over his physical body he could delay death by prioritising the healing of his lungs and heart. He would have to resort to breaking down into his ethereal form if he got hurt even more than this.

"_How could you! You betrayed me!" _Her hand struck down again and he fell on his on the ground as the muscles on his legs were severed. He looked up and saw Inoue Orihime still getting closer. Everyone in the underground space were too shocked to react to what was happening in any way and Bezanthume had a feeling they thought he deserved a beating.

"**I don't know what you're –**

"_A strange man visited us today. A real creep, but he's really rich, so I had to behave."_

"_**... What did he look like?"**_

"_Pale as a ghost, as tall, or maybe even taller than you. That was all fine and good, but it was his eyes that bothered me. I don't know what exactly was it, but he kept talking about strange things."_

"_**A sister..."**_

"_Yes, he kept saying that! Wait... how did you know that? Is it a Noble thing?"_

"_**I am so sorry..."**_

What the hell was that! It was him and someone... else. He couldn't place anything other than the voices and still the energy inside him was in turmoil. It was his past, the past he'd kept suppressing all this time and now it was coming back. His consciousness was fading and his body was close to complete shutdown of brain activity, but now Inoue Orihime was standing over him.

"_The least you could do is remember me... Say my name." _She said and Bezanthume felt the urge to just give in to the ethereal transformation and the breakdown of soul and body it brought. He would just be a mass of energy and a single will guiding it. No room for thought or the guilt and heartbreak he was feeling now, for some reason. He was being forced into the transformation, but just giving into it felt like running away and Bezanthume had a feeling he'd done enough of that already.

There had been a woman in his memories, the one he'd talked to and eventually vowed. Her name and even her appearance had stayed a mystery to him out of his own cowardice. He had no right to call Kurosaki Ichigo weak if he couldn't even face whatever his past he'd locked away. The woman had been dazzling and beautiful and strong enough to beat him down and make him respect her, even with his juvenile view of the world...

"**Ophelia..." **Bezanthume muttered and looked into the furious face of the woman that had been there in his memories, but who he'd tried his best to keep anonymous for something that had happened in his past. She had been called Ophelia and she had been beautiful.

And then Bezanthume had killed her.

* * *

**Ooh... so very interesting... What could have possibly driven Bezanthume to do such a thing? Was he really that much of an asshole in the past? We might never know... Well, If I don't continue this story, that is, but that's pretty unlikely.**


	24. History of Violence

**Okay, I did it. It's here, read it, do it.  
**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

** History of Violence  
**

The man that had called himself Benjamin Copperwail was literally in pieces in front of Inoue Orihime. His left arm looked to be hanging on by a thread, his chest was literally cut open and his legs looked like they had been mauled by a tiger, repeatedly. The amount of blood was enough to dye the ground under him a bright red and to Kisuke's surprise his wounds no longer showed any sign of closing, or healing in any way. After he'd said the name Inoue Orihime seemed to have wanted to hear he had fallen limp on his mauled knees and stared blankly ahead, quietly bleeding to death.

Deep psychological trauma on a demon of his power was not good, not good at all, at least from what Kisuke knew about the matter. It was not much, but he had records of an accomplished researcher in Kido actually giving his life to a lesser demon for information on their kind. Kisuke was sure Kurotsuchi would have continued the research without hesitation if he hadn't made sure to not leave any copies of it behind. It had been ancient by the time he found it, but according to the research time made it easier for demons to cross over to our world. Kurotsuchi was bound to escalate his experiments in a way that he would spark the attention of something he couldn't handle.

"_Tell me why." _Inoue Orihime's voice said in straight forward tone that was not like the girl at all, but her voice had not changed very drastically, maybe just a little more mature and low. Benjamin Copperwail didn't seem to respond at first, but then his wings suddenly shot out of his back with a splash of what Kisuke first thought of being blood. His wings were impressive and looked majestic and ominous, flaring out behind him as they were, but it was the spray of blood that had come with them that got his rapt attention.

The drops of what had looked like dark blood stopped in mid-air and hovered in place before starting their silent and slow trip back towards the demon. The blood that had stopped closer to him had already started forming into a shape around his head. Kisuke felt fear and puzzlement seize him as he realised that the blood was from the hole in his chest being torn open and that they were now forming into a hollow mask around his head. The demon was actually going through the process of hollowification as he watched. As soon as he thought how strangely uneventful the process was the demon's power flared as his wings began shining in a blinding light and knocked all the spectators back.

As Kisuke was regaining his footing and preparing to go to where both Jinta and Ururu were stumbling, one in slack jawed awe and the other in paralyzing fear, the demon's signature flames flared out and covered both Inoue Orihime and him out of sight, hidden behind a swirling vortex of flames violent enough to make the stone around it glow crimson. Kisuke stopped staring and lunged to catch Ururu and Jinta. He was just in time as the typhoon of flame suddenly expanded and lashed out every which way with torrents of flame; Kisuke was barely able to dodge the flames and had to shunpo out of his coat as it was caught ablaze by one of the jets of flame shooting out of the torrent of flame. Seeing his coat being consumed by the fire and disappear completely with it without even a bit of ash or residue confirmed his suspicion that it was no normal flame.

Another series of flames shot out from the vortex and Kisuke saw Kurosaki's sisters in the path of one, too scared, or unconscious to move out of the way. The dragon that had brought them to the underground space rushed out form the corner she had been sleeping in and another torrent of flame shot out of the dragon's mouth, countering the flame that would have killed the two sisters. The dragon placed herself protectively between the sisters and the demons bolts of flames, the flames harmlessly licking the dragon's scales. Kisuke knew that the process of hollowification was violent, he actually knew more about it than anyone else, with the possible exception of Aizen, but given the demon's suggested strength he was lashing out surprisingly little force.

As if on que, that's when the flames started to retreat rapidly and the heat that it had radiated only lingered. Kisuke skidded to a halt and set down Ururu and Jinta, turning back to look at the storm of fire concentrating into a single point, just on the edge of the melted stone it had caused. Kisuke crouched, steeling himself to either evade or try to deflect the next attack. The fire kept on spinning and folding in on itself, eventually losing its brilliance and becoming a mass of luminescent red mist, lingering in a form of a human. The mist gained form and features appeared. A child with long red hair and light brown skin stood where the mist had collected. Kisuke couldn't discern the child's gender, but taken the claws and red eyes, it was very likely this was some manifestation of the demon that caused the fire it had solidified out of.

"**... Who the fuck are you people?" **The child spat out in that unnaturally deep voice and Kisuke was rather sure that this was some part of Benjamin Copperwail. The child turned back and saw Copperwail's form kneeling in front of Inoue Orihime, hollow mask fully formed and a gaping round hole in the middle of his chest, his wings emanating a red light that lingered around them in a protective shield. He took a moment to take in the sight and then turned back to Kisuke and the other people in the room.

"**Okay, so what was I doing before that happened?" **The child said, now sounding more bored than anything. He seemed to have come to a conclusion about his situation that didn't really please him, but was Kisuke just supposed to accept the fact that Copperwail could break off a child version off of himself, just like that? The feminine featured child looked around the people in the room, silently nodding, as if they were actually answering his question. His next statement confirmed Kisuke's heavy suspicion about his ability to read their minds. **"I see... do you happen to have any forgeable steel around, Urahara Kisuke, something that can hold a blade? The spiritual composition of shinigamis doesn't factor in it with the nature of my power, as you know by now."**

Kisuke stood there, perplexed by the whole situation and his strange request. What was happening with his real body, why was it that this offshoot of him didn't seem to share his memories and how could a demon even turn hollow? Kisuke opened and closed his mouth, both because he was a little too confused by the situating and because he was taking stock of the metal he had around and if they could actually be forged into decent weapons, as was the child's intention, he presumed.

"Oh, he's just adorable, isn't he?" Lilith, the supposed angel, said in a cooing voice and held a hand up to her cheek. She looked like she was fighting down the urge to run up and hug him. The child was feminine to a fault, if he really was a past presentation of the demon turning hollow a short ways from him. Also, Kisuke presumed that demons followed the same rules about sexes and biology in general, so maybe it wasn't that different for him to look like that? It could have been a part of their natural development cycle, for all he knew.

"**You are only half right in that assumption, but you shouldn't dwell on such things. Get the steel down here, I'll have to refuel while you do that." **The young version of the huge demon turned on his heels and started to saunter towards the crimson tinted dragon and the Kurosaki twins. His stature was nowhere near as intimidating as his more mature self, but there was still an air of unnatural confidence and authority about him. There was age to his eyes that shouldn't have been there. He was only able to take a few steps towards the dragon and shivering twins before being stopped by Yoruichi jumping in his way.

"You will _not _hurt those children!" Yoruichi screamed furiously and the young demon stayed unimpressed as he looked up at Yoruichi, who seemed to have had enough of not knowing what was going on. The child-like demon brought up a finger and pointed it at Yoruichi in a mocking manner.

"**And I am to believe **_**you **_**are going to stop me?" **He said, a smirk laced with contempt overtaking his feminine features.

"Damn right I am! I don't know what is go –" Yoruichi's words were cut short as a jet of flame erupted from the demon's finger and took her right shoulder with it as it flickered out unnaturally fast and cleanly for a natural flame. Yoruichi collapsed on the ground screaming and the demon stepped over her body without his smirk fading in the least.

"**Good, just making sure I had a reason." **The demon then said a few words in the language that hurt Kisuke's head to the dragon and only stopped at the dragon's blunt sounding reply. The dragon's tail lashed out and struck the ground right in front of the young demon with enough force to shake the ground. Now the demon's expression had changed into one of annoyance. It was hard to believe the animated and aggravating demon had been this detached in his youth. It was like the opposite of what happened to Byakyua, at least from the reports Kisuke had.

"**I would kill myself for throwing me into a situation like this if it wasn't a temporal paradox." **

**Hitsugaya Toushirou**

"They're coming in through the roof! The roof!" Hitsugaya screamed as he fiddled with the plastic controller furiously, his sword set to his side as to not impede his completely pointless flailing around as the animated zombies rushed at him.

"Busy! Die, you fucker!" The girl screamed at her half of the screen as the grenade she had launched made mince meat out of an impossibly large zombie. She then set fire to the rest of the horde in front of her and started retreating up the stairs as the zombies followed, on fire and grasping at their virtual proxies. "Okay, I didn't think that through..."

Both of them then promptly tried to shoot, stab, kick and blow up enough zombies to survive but were overwhelmed by the continuous damage they kept taking from the zombies on fire and the ones that were able to grab their proxies and stop them from covering each others' backs for those few seconds. They both looked at the game over screen with half-amused shock. This was nowhere near the first time this had happened.

"Setting them on fire helped immensely. Whatever gave you that idea?" Toushirou said, with sarcasm oozing out his voice, thick as honey. Rezaliel stared right ahead, fuming in annoyance, but Toushirou couldn't resist the urge of teasing her about it. She had done the same thing when he had screwed up, every god damn time.

"Oh, shut up, Blondie! That was a valid strategy!" The girl countered and turned away, huffing.

"Maybe when they're a little further away and in a tight group, but when they're all around you and in full health? It's stupid, that's what it is."

"Your face is stupid!" The girl retorted and glared at him in amused anger, her face suddenly an inch apart from his. He suddenly couldn't come up with anything to shoot back at the intentionally stupid counter-argument. The girl knew how to make him squirm and had taken every chance she could to do so. The moment he started to lean back from the sudden proximity, a victorious smile spread across the girl's features. She played with his ability to think coherently even more when she smiled, but he'd seen her do it enough to notice she had fangs; genuine, sharp fangs at the edge of her delightful smile. Somehow, taken everything else strange about the girl, this didn't surprise or unnerve him as much he would have thought a few hours ago.

The girl's smile turned into a small smirk tugging at the edge of her mouth as she turned his eyes back to the screen in front of them, but made no move to play the game. A distant look settled in her eyes and she hung her head ever so slightly. Toushirou opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but the sudden change in the girl's attitude made the paranoid part of his brain notice the shift of lighting in the room and the faintest flicker of a shadow on the TV-screen's reflective surface.

The sickle-like blade swished through where his neck was a split-second ago. He followed the blade to see who had snuck up behind him, but only saw the girl's shadow retreating back onto the floor, as if it was elastic.

"Please, don't make this harder than it already is…" The girl said in barely a whisper and her shadow jumped at his throat again. Toushirou grabbed his sword and jumped out of the room and the shadow's supposed reach. He cursed himself for being stupid enough to be led around in enemy territory by someone who had actually proven to be powerful enough to send him to the hospital. He jumped over the book cases of the room and landed quite a distance away from the little room she had built out of those very bookcases.

He noticed that the amount and order of the bookcases in the room had changed during the time he had spent playing with the girl. There were considerably more of them and they were set out in a tight circle around the room he had jumped out of. The more light hearted books from the shelves had also disappeared and all he saw were old and dark tomes of dark leather. The change was disturbing to say the least. The whole room, in its impressive dimensions was somehow connected to the girl's power and mind.

"_Hey, I died again! I blame you for that!" _The girl's voice carried over the bookcases between him and the small room fashioned out of the bookcases. Who was she talking to now? Why did it sound a little distorted. He jumped from atop one bookcase on top of another and its shadow lunged up and at his throat. There was clearly no mind behind it and the shadow slowly retracted back into the ground after he dodged and stayed still.

He didn't know how to get out of this space and even the doors on the wall had disappeared. What he couldn't get his mind around was why the girl would choose such a roundabout method to kill him. She had been able to severely injure him and had allowed Matsumoto to tend to his wounds instead of finishing the job. If she had been able to knock him unconscious, then Matsumoto would have had a hard time to either avoid defeat. The girl was practically invisible to anything except the naked eye and had proven to be capable of some kind of instant translocation.

"Actually, it's more like moving everything else, rather than me." The voice made Hitsugaya to jump away and land on the air a few bookcases from where he had been standing. The person talking was a woman with deep blue eyes and dark hair. Her skin was more tanned than the mysterious girl's, but the similarity was uncanny otherwise. She had to be related to the girl in some way, an older sibling, or even her mother. What Hitsugaya was worried about was if this woman would attack him, or help him get out of here.

"No, don't get the wrong idea; you need to die, but it's been a while since I had anyone other than my other self to talk to." The woman took a step and reached a hand out to tussle up Hitsugaya's hair. He was sure the woman had only taken one step and that he had been in the air a moment ago. "You're just so cute when you have no idea what's going on, little boy."

Hitsugaya tried to step back and get away from this woman, but something tripped him and something was also stopping him from using the dozens of techniques he knew to stop his fall. It was no surprise that the woman used the chance to close the distance between them, but the fact that the woman ended up landing under him was surprising, not to mention utterly impossible.

"Oh my, control yourself, cutie." The woman said with an obvious amused tint to her voice. Hitsugaya became very aware that he had ended up straddling the woman to the ground somehow. It was like this was the kind of dream where strange and embarrassing things happened without his control. "That is pretty close, actually. Now get off me, if you're not planning to stick it in."

He jumped off the woman and felt his cheeks burning, even when the woman had obviously orchestrated the whole thing. The woman swung her legs over the side of the bookcase they were on and set his sword next to her. Frustration didn't even start to describe what Hitsugaya was feeling. He was a captain of the 13 protection corps and these random people were able to steal his sword like it was nothing. He sighed and resigned to the fact he had little to no control of the situation around this woman. He sat down next to her and waited for her to speak.

"I take it you haven't figured out where you are, I'll give you a minute to figure it out." The woman said and grabbed a book from the shelf they were sitting on. The shadows that had attacked him before had disappeared and the shelves themselves looked different. The mysterious girl had brought him into this psychedelic place and now her apparent older sibling was holding his sword captive. Getting on his nerves must run in the family, since this woman had also captured his sword within moments of seeing him. Even the woman's powers, or whatever, were exceedingly similar, fighting the laws of the world HItsugaya was comfortable with.

Actually, the space he was in now had changed once when the mysterious girl had tried to kill him and when this woman appeared. Both wanted to kill him and the woman did say something he had not paid any attention to the first time. _"Only my other self to talk to…"_

"Okay, I'll help you along a little, since you're taking too long. You are in our mind, the girl you met in whatever world you're from is only the part that didn't want to grow up. There's a whole lot of meta-physical bullshit going around that makes it possible, but I'm not going to start explaining it to you. All you need to know is that I and she are the same person, in essence." The woman sounded very sure off herself and what she was saying would explain why the room kept changing, but it was still completely insane. The woman sighed and shook her head before handing him the book she had been reading. "Here, read this."

"What is it?" Hitsugaya asked as he held the book at arm's length like it was a dead cat. He didn't trust anything in this world, but had no choice but to go along with this woman.

"It is what the girl you met has been waiting for all this time. It will be interesting to see your reaction to it." The woman said and angled herself right next to him. He set the book on his lap and opened it, just to distract him from what exactly was pressing against his arm at that moment. Even the fact that the book was taken from these changing bookcases that had been attacking him just a few minutes ago should have clued him in on the nature of what it would do.

The whole spectrum of light and sound exploded out of the book and assaulted his senses in ways he didn't want to think about too much, for a fraction of a second that felt like 2, 7 seconds. It was strange, it was surreal and it took him by surprise, but he still should have seen it coming.

**Orihime**

She remembered the way her thoughts had started to seem foreign and how her memory started having blank spots where she hurt her friends. Now, she regretted doing that and wondered how she had been so in tune with the strange new power Bezanthume's ring gave her. What had happened after that was all a blur, but she felt like she had been yelling a lot and been angry, so very angry.

Still, it didn't explain why she was suddenly unable to control her body and walking among strange flashes of light, collections of sounds and smudged and stretched facial features. She was walking through a crowd of what she presumed to be people, but everything about the "people" she passed and glanced towards bled into itself and everything about them was an incoherent mess, save for an underlying tone to the incoherent mess they were. They were shaped like flames changing shape and color at a whim, masses of dust swirling and forming complex and seemingly random formations as they scattered, reformed and moved. Pillars, trickles and fountains of water raging, churning and flowing along beside her. Indiscriminate shapes in the air that rushed between the things around her carried by an unseen wind. There were also other more undefined shapes among them as of things she was moving in, but they all stayed separate and seemed to be interacting with each other somehow. The place she was in felt like a marketplace, but everything else was foreign to her.

The sky was dark and Orihime though she saw a few too many moons in the sky, but whoever was controlling her body right then didn't pay them any mind, so she couldn't be sure. What her possessed body was concentrated on was a tall figure of a red-haired man walking through the crowd. Every single of the strange masses of things did every possible thing to get out of his way, but it didn't seem like he cared about the ones he bumped into. The chaos he caused in the crowd was slowing Orihime's approach. The red-haired man was the only human figure in the crowd and he was a head or two taller than anyone of them. Either his coat was padded in the shoulders, or he was tense for some reason. His posture looked like he was angry at something and his pace told of a purpose, but where was he going?

Orihime followed the red-haired man up a long set of stairs carved onto the side of the mountain and felt her body call out to the man in that same headache-inducing language Bezanthume used. The man reached a hand out to his side and fire sprouted out of his palm into a crude depiction of a spear of fire that kept building in intensity. Orihime slowed her walk to get some distance between her and the spear, as the she felt the heat start burning her skin. The man sped up to a run for a few paces before bringing the spear up and throwing it forward with all the power he had. Orihime had stopped walking and watched as the spear of fire hit something and set it aflame, revealing an obsidian doorway and the several armored guards surrounding it.

The guards drew their weapons as the man was already charging at the closest one with his hands covered in flames. The guard was able to draw his weapon and slash at the man before he closed the distance between them fully, but the man had caught the weapons blade in one hand and reached into the helmet of the suit of armor with the other. Whatever it was this man just killed didn't have time to scream as it was burned to death at his touch. There were two guards left and one of the two had chosen to attack the tall man with a curved dagger. Orihime's host paid attention to the way the man used the position of the man's own arms to move in close unseen. The dark guard jumped up from his low stance and a deep and long gash appeared on the man's back.

The man roared and whipped around to bash the opportunist guard with a fist covered in an intense flame. The offending guard was slammed savagely away with his armor smoking, but the counter had been too rushed to be lethal. The guard will reform and attack in a few seconds and now the red-haired, red-eyed man was wounded with a distracting injure he didn't have time to mend. Orihime's host didn't flinch at the gaze, or share her surprise at the man being Bezanthume. Sure, he was tall and had red hair, but it was well less than seven feet and his hair was more of a bright red than the near black they were on the Bezanthume she knew. The eyes and the coat were both the same, so there was no mistake.

The other guard tried to use Bezanthume's distraction to plunge his spear into his side, but Bezanthume caught the spear by the shaft before it could pierce him and a fraction of a second later his fire was racing down the shaft of the weapon. The guard was able to let go of the spear before the fire consumed him, but another burst of flame hit the guard as he was drawing his dagger. Now Bezanthume had only one guard to worry about, but this was the one that had been able to hurt him.

He was nowhere to be seen, but there was no doubt that he hadn't ran away. He was somewhere nearby, only waiting for his chance. Orihime's host body's only glue was a faint grinding sound somewhere around her and a shadow just at the edge of her vision, but that was all she needed to start moving. Her body moved faster than Orihime could follow, but whoever she was viewing this through lowered her stance, grabbed the cowardly guard's wrist with both hand from below and then righted herself again while twisting the armored hand in her hands. This didn't disjoint the guards wrist, it broke the joint in the armor and seemed to disturb the ever-changing dust inside it enough for her to grab the dagger and stab it through the eyehole of the armor. There was a flicker of something resembling electricity and the armor went limp and clattered on the ground. It all happened in a second or less and Orihime was just realizing that her body had killed someone without hesitation and quite skillfully.

"That could have gone better, B." Orihime's body said in a way Orihime understood without her lips moving. It seemed like at least the thoughts her host sent out to converse with Bezanthume she could understand. This was weird and she couldn't make sense of it even if given decades to do so, but hurray for small blessings. "I've told you to watch your form while fighting. This guy got that hit in because you started swinging your arms around."

Bezanthume didn't answer immediately as he seemed to be focusing on closing the wound on his back. He clenched a fist and the wound on his back started hissing and smoking before a flicker of flame burst out and his coat was repaired as it disappeared.

"I have to do this, I'm out of time." Bezanthume answered with a hurried thought. His voice was still deep, but there was no unnatural boom to it. Did demons usually change so much with time? How much younger was this Bezanthume compared to the one Orihime knew? Orihime felt her body frown and she reached out a hand to stop Bezanthume from walking to the dark door the deceased guards had guarded. Orihime talked in that painful language again, but Orihime was pretty sure she had asked about what was going on. Bezanthume looked back at her and his face twitched slightly before he turned away again.

"I can't stay, I have to go. I couldn't stop him, he will come for me if I do not stop him and I couldn't stop him if I wait. There's no other –"

"You can't beat him." Orihime heard the woman in her body say with her mind. It was weird how the volume of the thoughts varied without any sound, but Orihime wouldn't start to question it now. Bezanthume's eyes bored down to Orihime's and whoever Orihime was in didn't flinch at the gaze. Bezanthume's eyes darted to the crumbled form of the guard he hadn't been able to kill before they tried to use Orihime as a hostage. "Not as you are now, B. You can't even beat me and form the way you're talking about "him", he's at least as experienced as me, or as powerful as you."

Orihime's body stepped closer and reached up to cup Bezanthume's cheeks comfortingly. The bright light of his eyes dimmed and his posture lurched. His right hand cupped her cheek in return and Orihime could feel just his palm cover her cheek and his fingers snaking at the back of her head. He might not have been a giant, but he was still big. His right hand was cupping her face and his left held her upturned right hand gingerly. Orihime thought it was a tender moment that showed that the side of Bezanthume she knew had always been there.

"There is no other way…" Orihime nearly missed the "whispered" thought Bezanthume said as he looked into her eyes. Orihime could feel her brows furrow and her body try to step away from the solemn demon. The hands she had thought were embracing her in a show of affection had began to squeeze and her right hand was trapped in red-haired man's left hand. His right hand made it's way to her neck and she could feel the sharp claw protruding from Bezanthume's thumb pressing on the side of her neck. Their eyes were still locked and Orihime could see the flicker of doubt in Bezanthume's eyes that had stopped him from tearing her throat out already.

Orihime would have tried to reach the gentler and nicer side of Bezanthume she knew, but the woman Orihime was now possessing was not someone so optimistic. She used her free hand to strike at the only place she could reach and hurt with bare hands to try and free herself. Bezanthume jerked his head back in time and clenched his fist on her neck. The pain would have made Orihime black out right there and save her from the feeling of every cell in her body turning into pain, spreading out from the wound Bezanthume's claw tore in her throat. The last thing Orihime saw was the sight of Bezanthume's eyes still staring into hers, a bloody scratch going over his right eye.

At least now she knew why the strange tattoo under his right eye was broken.

**Urahara Kisuke**

The child demon's request to have forgeable steel had seemed nonsencical and a fool's errand, but more Kisuke thought about it, the more it made sense. From what he'd seen from Benjamin Copperwail's abilities it was, or was at least closely connected with controlling and creating heat. Apart from the obvious battle oriented use he had already shown, this kind of power could be used in making conventional weapons and other steelwork.

Then again, when talking about a definitely powerful and possibly ancient demon, which is more screwed up than a spiral staircase, it is suspect that anything he would actually made be nearly conventional.

He had had to go a few blocks and pilfer a construction site for some kind of metal he thought the miniature evil incarnate could use. He was not an expert in this field, but tempered steel that didn't seem to be painted would have to do. Yoruichi would have actually been an expert, but the little bastard blew off most of her shoulder for trying to go against him. He was not looking forward to facing the disrespectful mass of malevolence with such thoughts about him floating in his mind, which he seemed to be able to read, but he was rather interested in what he was going to do with the steel he was providing.

"**Misplacing half a ton of iron and steel in this little shack is a feat, I must say. You must have been amazingly drunk, or it was stolen by someone not here, since I can't find any of you recollecting what the hell you did to it." **The stunted being of untold cruelty sung out in a mocking tone as Kisuke set the steel rebar in front of him. He watched with interest as the little demon's fingers started glowing a bright red and they sunk into the steel. He took out a chunk and held it out in front of him as the flame on his palm intensified and the steel melted. **"Highly refined, clearly mass produced, not ideal, but it should work…"**

The young demon then kept on ignoring Kisuke as he jutted the rebar into the ground more solidly and started pounding, melting and shaping the part that was jutting out with only a faint glow as a sign of the intense heat his hands needed to be to work metal so easily. Kisuke watched him work for a few minutes to note that the demon's power did indeed encompass controlling heat outside of producing it, as the metal he worked with cooled unnaturally fast at times when he worked it.

Kisuke turned his attention what was happening to the rest of the same malevolent demon and noted that he had already formed a mask, but it was blank and expressionless, apart from to wavy horns jutting from where his forehead would have been. His wings werte still there, but they seemed to have shrunk and the feathers were thicker and fewer in number. The glowing substance that his mask had been formed out of was spilling out onto his shoulders and Kisuke saw the beginnings of joints forming at his shoulders. His hollow transformation was making him into an arrancar right off the bat, if this was what was going on, with his multi-dimensional nature it was impossible to know for certain.

Then what was this child's purpose here? Simply to finish what the adult version started? That's how he had acting like for now. It could be a point the other version was trying to drive home by showing them just how powerful he was when he was just a child. From everything he had done and the overly confident and macho way he had been acting it was probably a little bit of both and some other motive he didn't know, or understand.

"Your girlfriend is fine, by the way." Kisuke was brought out of his thoughts by the sudden appearance of the gold-haired lecherous angel. The more he thought about the situation he was in, the more convinced he was becoming that it would all end up to be a dream. If he hadn't already tested for that possibility dozens of times, that is. The speed in which the small demon was forging the steel into a blade was astonishing, since he didn't even have a hammer. That's when the angel reached out a hand to his cheek and just when he was about to turn his eyes to her planted a kiss on his other cheek. The piece of skin where her lips met his started glow and his eyes dilated as he looked into distance, and beyond

"I GOT IT!" It's all so clear now! All of our struggle, all of our grief and suffering could be gone with just a simple word; A deceptively simple numerical code that was the answer to life, the universe and everything. The way all of it twisted, looped, and contorted into it to mean the – how could he have not seen it before, it's so infuriatingly apparent and yet it had eluded him at every turn. Oh, the wonderful complexity of the world we live in, flying through space on a giant tortoise –

"I'd say it's a turtle, if it's flying through space that is." The messenger of light, with her hair woven out of rays of sunlight spoke in her beautiful tongue, which glistened between her luscious lips and teeth whiter than the walls of Seireitei on a crisp morning.

"Yes, of course. A giant turtle flying through space with our world draped on… it's back…" The world seemed a lot… darker, all of a sudden. The exhilaration of knowing all with perfect certainty was ebbing away like it had not been as real and definite he had thought mere seconds ago. It did not take long to realize that the heretical angel had done something to him with that little kiss on the cheek. "The answer to life, the universe and everything isn't 42, is it?"

"**No, and you're an idiot for falling for her trick as long as you did." **The little hellspawn chimed in his unnatural voice as he was weaving pieces of metal together with his fingers to make a chain with impressive speed. He made the links in the chain jagged and adorned them with little spikes by pinching his fingers around the metal in a twisting motion. A chain like that would rip through skin and lodge into bone if applied with enough speed and with a heavy enough weight at the other end.

"Sure, but how did you do that? How did I suddenly believe all that nonsense about turtles and the world, along with 42?"

"Well, you see –"

"**It's her light. She did mention she was a messenger of light at some point, right?" **The demonic brat chimed in yet again, much to the angel's annoyance. **"It doesn't matter even if she didn't, that's what their light does; changes things, shifts perspective, all to their liking. There's a naïve saying among you people about **_**"shining a new light" **_**on something. They think it's the height of humor."**

"There's a lot more to it than that, runt." The angel muttered before turning back to Kisuke. The angel seemed afraid of the small demon, despite his size. "I didn't just make you see things my way, did I? I actually fed you new information and for the duration I specified, you believed it with all of your heart, yes?" The angel finished with a smug grin on her undeniably beautiful face.

"Yes, but we have illusionary techniques and some very potent special abilities that do about the same thing ourselves."

"That is where you are wrong, good sir!" The angel shouted and extended her impressive wings while pointing one perfectly manicured finger at him. The demon snorted and continued making weapons, seemingly unimpressed. "You might be able to make people believe and remember things that are not there, or just not true, I'll give you that. BUT! and this is an important "_but", _I bet you cannot make someone _know _ something, without a shadow of a doubt, there's always some technique or trick to counter it, or become aware of it. If I had kept making you believe that ridiculous, yet enjoyably imaginative, drivel, then no one could convince you otherwise. That is my power, puny mortal. You should feel honored to know of such things, since I could just make you believe anything I say. Speculate, question and come to the same conclusion, please!"

"**No way to counter it, eh?"**

"You shut your mouth, runt! I like the adult you, but your stunted self has not shown even a piece of what makes him so fun to be around!"

"**Kisuke, the trick to nullifying her effect on you is the fact that her light is something other-worldly. Nothing in this world can stop it, or cast it in shadow. I am immune because I am both otherworldly shadow and light, as a flickering flame." **The demon was still concentrated on making his wicked weapons to battle a 17- year old boy, it sounded like what he was talking about had been taught to him and he was just reciting the phrases. The angel still looked annoyed by the small hellspawn's impudence.

"The adult version of you is immune because his light overshadows mine, runt. Even the act of standing near him makes me shiver…" The angel hugged herself and a serene smile overtook her features as her wings closed in closer to her body. "It's like dancing on the fires of the sun…"

It was not very encouraging that the angel sounded like she was talking from experience. From what he'd seen from both the demon and this angel, then the act of her dancing on the sun wasn't something he should rule out. The thought of the demon over the verge of a mental breakdown having such power downright scared him. What would a hollowed demon with that kind of power do?

The fact that his power seemed to be, or revolve around, fire wasn't very encouraging either. Everything about the situation he was in was very discouraging, now that he thought about it.

That was when his thoughts were interrupted by the hole Ichigo had been dropped in exploding out of the pure reiatsu flowing from it. Kisuke would have had Tensai stay in the hole with him to keep his hollow in check, but the demon had commandeered the whole project and what came out was basically a hollow with a sword; a huge buther's knife from the looks of it, too. That didn't seem right. His zanpakutou shoouldn't be fully formed with just the return of the access to his power, but there he was with a whole new kind of weapon. Maybe letting him turn hollow to this extent had helped.

"Oh, don't think about it too much. He's just cutting some corners when doing things the second time around." The angel said and leaned back while sitting on a rock. Kisuke glanced at where the child version of the demon had been and saw the adult version holding the wicked chain and a curved dagger in his hands instead, the chain hanging from the left and the dagger in his right. The small demon had worked on a few other weapons and they were scattered around the underground space, jutted into the ground or leaning against rocks. "Now just watch how he does this. He turned into something Ichigo recognizes and would attack on sight to speed things along."

The hollow-masked Ichigo let out a screeching howl as he charged straight for the demon while swinging his sword in an upwards angle from his right side. The demon lowered into a stance and despite backing away or trying to dodge the strike he moved forward as Ichigo was closing the distance and ducked under the strike while sidestepping to Ichigo's right side. Instead of stabbing Ichigo repeatedly in his side and neck, he only sliced at his leg before backing off from the hollowed teenager. Ichigo sliced at where the demon had been just a second ago and glared at him for a moment.

"See, this is why the hollow version is easier to deal with. The normal Ichigo would have kept charging, but this guy is rethinking his approach when Benny out maneuvered him." The angel excitedly whispered to Kisuke. After a few tentative steps on his injured leg the hollow snarled again while charging, but this time stopping with a few meters between them to deliver a horizontal slash with his over-sized sword. The way he leaned forward extended his reach even more and the demon took a step back. The illusion of his older self was fading, but the hollow didn't seem like he cared as he followed with another swing as the demon was still stepping back. There was a metallic cling and the small demon was knocked back several steps. The hollow charged without hesitation with his sword upraised for a devastating downwards slash. The small demon had little to no time to move, but his movements were not rushed in the least as he raised his dagger to meet the blade while stepping to his left. There was another sound of metal hitting metal and Ichigo's sword was now lodged in the ground right next to the demon's left foot and the dagger's blade looked like it had been chipped away completely by him using it to parry Ichigo's huge sword. This didn't stop him from jumping up above Ichogo by using his sword as a stepping stone and lodging the now jagged blade in his shoulder.

"Oh, Ichigo doesn't stand a chance, does he? At least he's a quick study, though. Don't you agree, Yoroichi?" The angel whispered again while looking back over her shoulder. Sure enough, Yoruichi stepped out and joined them on the edge of the rock, leaving Kisuke between these two passive-aggressive powers of destruction. This was not the way he had dreamed this at all, not at all alike whatsoever.

"As much as I doubt having him do anything as a hollow will help anyone, but he did start using his sword's longer range after just one instance of that demon stepping inside his swing. Is this why that part of him is here while he's… going through whatever that is?" Yoruichi said, observant as ever. She was the combat expert here, so what the demon was doing must have impressed her more than it did Kisuke. To actually coax talent out of someone blinded by anger seemed to be some kind of achievement if Yoruichi's tone was anything to go on.

"Yes… Yes, that would be the short answer. I'd rather not go into the long answer since there are all kinds of meta-physical things about the nature of what Benny is and how Orihime ties into it and a lot of things I honestly don't know. I'll just enjoy the show and wait for my part in all of this." The angel said while following "Benny's" and Ichigo's battle.

Ichigo was getting closer and closer to cutting the little demon and he kept on retreating and dodging the oversized butcher's knife. Kisuke watched their battle and started to notice that Ichigo was starting to repeat himself. Could the little demon be barely missing his swings intentionally to make his moves predictable? He shared a glance with Yoruichi and they would have been sure, even if they hadn't heard the sudden rattling of chains and Ichigo's snarling howl soon after. The demon had finally used the chain he had painstakingly crafted and it looked just as painful as Kisuke had thought. "Benny" had thrown the chain at Ichigo's feet when he was in between swings and bound them together, with the spikes cutting into his skin and causing untold pain. He could have stopped there and used his flame to attack the immobilized hollow, but with a few flicks of his wrist the chain reached around his back from his legs and bound his forearms together while digging into his shoulder. Ichigo was still falling to the ground from the chain locking his feet together and "Benny" helped the process by sliding right into the earth with that strange ability the adult version had demonstrated more than once, taking the rest of the chain with him.

"What could he be planning to accomplish with this?" Yoruichi muttered as she scanned ground for the young manifestation of evil. Kisuke noted that the chain had stopped moving, but doubted that the demon was still holding it. He had probably fused it with the steel constructs underground, or the rock itself to keep Ichigo immobilized. The demon reappeared from the earth at one of the other weapons he had sculpted out of the steel rebar. It was a falchion with a thick and heavy blade at the end of a long hilt, all forged from the same lump of steel. Even if the blade wasn't very sharp, the weight of it would tear right through anything it hit. It was a surreal sight to see the slender child-like figure of the demon handle the heavy instrument of death like it was nothing; the way he handled the blade told Kisuke and Yoruichi that he had been trained in the use of the weapon, as well as manufacturing it.

The demon started advancing towards the bound hollow and it stared at the long-hilted weapon while testing the chains that held it. It was quiet and the eyes that looked through the holes in the mask spoke of intelligence and murderous intent. The demon raised his weapon and leapt towards the bound hollow and many things happened at once. Ichigo's form trashed against the chains and with a howl of both pain and fury, one of the links in the chain gave and he could move his hands enough to try and parry the blade. Ichigo's desperate trashing raised a cloud of dust and bas the falchion came down they hear metal grinding against metal and a heavy "_thunk!" _sound. The angel leaned in closer and the two other spectators next to her unconsciously did the same as the cloud of dust started to settle. The small demon backed out of the cloud of dust first with his weapon at the ready and with a notable chip in the blade. Ichigo's bleeding and panting figure emerged limping after him. He had broken the chains, but the parts that dug into his flesh were still mostly intact and burrowing deeper with every movement he made.

"So now the little demon's reach exceeds his weapons and his maneuverability is limited… I think I see where he's going with this." Yoruichi said and nodded approvingly in thought. Kisuke wasn't sure if the demon really had intended it, but in that situation he would start using ranged attacks to force the enemy to close in, if they didn't have ranged attacks as well. Since the demon didn't seem to be making use of the ability to burn things at a distance, which he had demonstrated several times before, then he probably was coaxing Ichigo. If Kisuke was right, he _did _kind of have a ranged attack, but would the hollowed Ichigo be able to use it? The normal version had little to no control over it to begin with. The hollowed shinigami snarled at the stationary demon and then raised his sword over his head for a downward slash that had no way of reaching the demon if he didn't rush in. Kisuke could see the blade start to gleam with murderous intent and the edge starting to gather reiatsu, but the demon didn't even seem to notice. The blade came down in a sharp motion and huge blade of light shot out toward the demon. Kisuke could see a flicker of flame appear in front of the demon just before the attack hit him.

"Kisuke, let me see your sword real quick." The angel said and reached a palm over to him. Without giving it any thought he offered his cane to the angel. Before he could start thinking of what she could possibly want with his sword, she had already unsheathed it and thrown it towards Ichigo.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Yoruichi snapped as she witnessed the seemingly nonsensical act play out in front of her. Kisuke wasn't sure if she was talking about the angel throwing his sword out on the battlefield like that, or the fact that Kisuke had offered it so easily. Knowing Yoruichi, it was probably the latter. The angel shushed her and pointed towards where the sword was still falling. Yoruichi looked ready to try and kill the angel, but her previous encounters with the gold-haired nympho probably had proven it was a bad idea, in many ways. She was about start berating the angel nonetheless, when the sudden movement where she had pointed caught her attention.

The demon had appeared again from underground right under the falling sword and caught it by the hilt with impressive ease. He was to the side of the hollowed Ichigo and with the way he didn't let off any reiatsu, it was very unlikely that Ichigo knew he was there. He grabbed the sword, made a dash towards Ichigo, grabbed the hilt of the dagger still lodged in his shoulder and used it to bend him back to made stabbing him in the face with Kisuke's sword that much easier. He pulled the dagger out of Ichigo's shoulder and spun around to throw Kisuke's sword back at him, straight towards his face and blade first. Kisuke was able to slap his hands together fast enough to catch the blade, but if Yoruichi hadn't reached her hand out to grab the hilt, then he would have lost an eye.

"Nice catch." The angel commented nonchalantly and gave Kisuke a pat on the head and Yoruichi a tap on the ass. Yoruichi let go of Kisuke's sword and walked off after a specifically murderous glance at the sex crazed angel.

"**Well, that was a hassle." **The demon said and sat down next to Kisuke. Kisuke sheathed his sword again with his hands trembling ever so slightly. He was an accomplished soldier and had come close to dying a few times, but almost having your eye poked out by your own sword was a new one. He hadn't realized how hard the demon's movements were to read without any reiatsu. The red dragon the quiet, red-haired amazon had turned out to be finally let the two sisters go and they rushed toward Ichigo's body.

"Why did you go through all that trouble, if you were just going to just stab him in the face?" Kisuke asked, turning his head to the demon that was now staring at his palm. His mind noted that there was a discoloration that looked like a burn on his hand; it was the hand that had grabbed his sword from the air. "And why did you have to use my sword for it?"

"**Do you perhaps have a better way to get that mask off of him? He'll be in very much pain when he wakes up, but he isn't dead." **He said this without even looking at Kisuke, but just a glance in Ichigo's direction and the way his sisters were acting proved that point. He wasn't conscious yet, but was reacting to his sisters pressing on his wounds to try and control the bleeding. Even if he wasn't dead, then he would be within the hour without the hollow's vitality. The little hellspawn glanced at him and then motioned towards the angel. Kisuke excepted for the angel to talk back, or at least make a snarky comment, but she immediately spread her wings and flew over to the two sisters and a thoroughly beaten Ichigo. Even at this distance Kisuke suddenly started seeing the borderline psychotic angel as the picture of perfection and benevolence. Ichigo's sisters did calm down and the angel didn't do any of her usual tricks when she started to heal the bleeding young man.

"**I have no memories of her, but it seems like she has a soft spot for children." **Kisuke turned to the demon and caught a distant and cold look in his eyes as he stared at the angel. **"I definitely prefer her to the ones I know of…"**

Kisuke was really getting sick of these inter-dimensional beings just showing up and messing up everything and anything he had planned with such practiced ease. He had planned to help the teenage shinigami regain his powers, but this fire-wielding mass of malevolence had done it in less than two hours, when he had planned to take at least a week for boy's convenience, and to ensure results. Also, there were the several hints and outright admissions of time travel, something he knew to be impossible if any and every law of nature and the supernatural were to be believed…

The roar of the barrier of flames the demon had been using to keep everyone away from his hollow transformation and whatever Inoue Orihime had to do with stopped suddenly and made Kisuke to stand up and look in that direction. It had not been quiet to say the least and had actually been the main reason why the yells of the Kurosaki twins hadn't bothered him while their brother had been brutally beaten. If the barrier had been kept up a while longer, then he would have had to be worried about the Kurosaki twins dying of asphyxiation, since as magical as it was, it was still a raging dome of flame eating up the oxygen in an enclosed space.

The demon next to him rushed to get up and jump to where the barrier used to be and where two figures were standing. The little hell spawn looked like he was about open his mouth when the smaller of the two figures held something out and Kisuke saw the annoying, violent and tiny demon turn into the thick colored smoke he had been and get sucked into whatever Inoue Orihime was holding.

Kisuke jumped to where she was standing with the figure that he presumed to still be Benjamin Copperwail and was surprised as to what he saw.

It was not that Inoue Orihime had changed drastically, but she was wearing the same kind of long overcoat that Benjamin Copperwail had been over her normal clothes. Her hair seemed to be a darker red, but the most drastic change was her eyes. The color of her eyes had not changed, but now there was a whole different person looking through them. When Inoue Orihime had been a soft-spoken and gentle person with a strong will to protect, the person looking at Kisuke now could pierce straight through Kisuke with only a glance. The way she carried herself had changed from the meek and apologetic to an authorative and imposing. While her eyes scanned the room, Kisuke turned to look at the form of Benjamin Copperwail.

He was still big and imposing and even carried himself with similar posture and such, but now he was wearing a full set of armor, instead of just the gauntlets. The set was made entirely of some kind of black metal with a red polish and looked to be something of a weapon in itself. The jagged and layered design of the gauntlets had continued on all the way to the shoulders and then it smoothed out into larger pieces of the armor covering his chest and abdomen. The spiked design was only apparent at the shoulders and large plates of armor coming down from his waist, as protrusions on his knees and his shin guards as downright curved spikes jutting outward. His wings seemed smaller, but Kisuke couldn't say much if they changed in any other way, since they were folded on his back. There was no sign of the signature hole of a hollow on his chest, but it could have been covered by the armor. The helmet of his armor looked like a mixture of a hollow mask and a helmet that would go with the armor he was wearing. It was made out of the same kind of metal as the armor and had two curved horns that jutted as spikes a few inches before curving back to follow the curve of the helmet. The strangest thing about the headpiece was that it had no holes or slits for his eyes that Kisuke could see. There was only a strange and complex looking symbol at the center off it.

"So, I have a nympho angel, two female ninjas, an immature demon obsessed with her brother, a teenage idiot, a scheming pervert and an elder dragon to work with?" Inoue Orhime asked either no one in particular, or someone only she could see. "Oh yes, there are still the introverted archer and the silent big guy… Along with the two of us… Yes, I think I can work with this."

* * *

**Been a while... nah, out of steam...**

**Crazy Laughter  
**


End file.
